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PRESIDENT OETHE PEIJN^ STATE TEACHERS ASSOCIATTON rN"1857 



EM KHH'OSIAK* 



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OBITUARY AND ADDRESSES 



OF THE LATE 



f vof. |0hn ^. -^toddiuil 



WHOSE LIFE-WORK ON EARTH WAS ENDED 
AUGUST 6th, 1873. 






NEWARK, N. J.: 

Stakbuck & Dunham, Printers. 165 Market Street. 

1874. 



T O TliE 






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^HESE /VIeMENTOS OF A pOLABORER 



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lY HBS iiL@\^i© WJWWE, 



The path of life may wind, 

The pace be swift or slow, 
A shadow walks behind. 
Wherever we may go. 
We see it not, but sometimes hear 
The echo of a footfall near. 

The pilgrim feet may press 

The fragrant turf or thorn ; 
His way be pleasantness, 
Or oft by tear drops worn. 
In every place, in every scene, 
Ourselves, and Death, one step between. 



That step will us divide, 

Until the Master say. 
This spirit I confide 

To wing from earth away ; 
And then beside us he will stand. 
Our escort to the better land. 



IN MEMORIAM, 



We watched, witli anguish deep, 

The slow advance: we saw 
Our loved one "fall on sleep" . 
To waken here no more. 
Enfolded to the icy breast. 
The wearv 'entered into rest.' 



A fragile, pain -draped form. 

With feeble, measured tread. 
Had battled with the storm. 
As seasons onward sped. 
The mortal faints, and yields, at length. 
The spirit; but renews its strength. 

The eye, so full of light, 

Betokened active thought. 
The will of giant might, 
A purpose had en wrought 
In daily life, in varied powers, 
To use and bless tlie passing hours. 

It scaled the heights to grasp. 
It fathomed depths to bring. 
It bent the knee, to clasp 
The Truth in everything. 
The Truth it sought, from near and far— 
From wayside liloom, from distant star. 

The spirit's meat and drink. 

It's ornament and pride : 
The chain, whose golden link 
Unites it to the Guide. 
The Truth, so simple, yet sublime, 
Untinged by wrong, undimmed by time. 



IN MEMOKIAM. 



Tliis treasure he would cltiiui. 

And share with great and small— 
An earnest, steadfast aim, 
Embraced the wants of all. 
The Principles, from facts he drew. 
To nourish, bless, our being true. 

He loved to weigh, define, 

Examine, demonstrate 
The harmony divine. 
In law and rule innate, 
Tlie strength and beauty, that combine 
In Nature — proving plan, design. 

He urged the young to choose 

An object worthy — high ; 
Allurements to refuse, 

The Tempter's voice to fly ; 
The Holy Lamp, the constant guide. 
That feet impatient may not slide ; 

To character mature. 
By strict integrity, 
All hardness to endure. 
With manly courtesy. 
The pure, the right, the good to love, 
And follow to their source above. 



The virtues of the heart. 

En wreathed the mental gift •. 
Each grace performed its part 
Earth-shadows to uplift. 
The lips and life, in effort one, 
Were faithful, until work was done. 



IN MEMOKIAM. 



His zeal o'ertaxed the nerve, 

Disease encompassed ronnd : 
No force Avas in reserve, 

To gnard the sacred ground ; 
In warning notes, the cough would tell 
The foe assaults the citadel ; 



The hearthstone glow was dim ; 

The heart-group, brave and true. 
At midnight calmly trim 
The lamp of hope anew. 
But ere the dawn, with bated breath. 
The powers of life conflict with death. 

With noble patience held 

That little band their trust ; 
But one by one was felled ; 
Their weapons left to rust. 
God's Avay is always best,' they said. 
And through the shattered portals tied. 

The house not made with hands. 

Henceforth his bright abode ; 
With saint and angel bands, 
At home, in Heaven, with God. 
All free from pain, from grief and care, 
He waits to bid us welcome there. 




Pkof. John Faik Stoddard, well known both as an 
Author and Teacher, died at his residence in Kearney, 
Hudson county, New Jersey, on Wednesday. August 
6th, 1873. He was born in Greenfield', Ulster county, 
New York, on the 20th of July, 1825. His rudimen- 
tary education was acquired at the district school in 
his native town, and at academies in Dutchess and 
Orange counties. At the age of sixteen he became a 
teacher in a district school. Subsequently he went to 
the state normal school at Albany ; where he gradiuited 
in 1847 — after receiving the hearty commendations of 
the State Officials, and Board of Education, before 
whom he had been subjected to a most rigid and 
thorough examination. On leaving the normal school 
he took charge of Liberty Normal Institute, which soon 
became marked for its thoroughness of instruction, and 
was appointed by the Regents of the University one 
of the academies of the state for the education of 

teachers. 

2 



10 OBITUARY. 

His "Intellectual xViithmetic " was prepared and 
used in manuscript for some years before it was given 
to the public. The commendations of Prof. D. P. Page 
led to its publication, and the rapid sale prepared the 
way for the succeeding, numbers of his normal series of 
Mathematics, and afterward, by the series of Alge- 
braic Works of Stoddard and Henkle, as joint authors. 
(The latter is regarded as an exhaustive work on the 
science.) In 1853 he received the degree of A. M. 
from the New York University. In November,' 1851, 
he was elected President of the University of northern 
Pennsylvania, in Wayne county, where he established 
a normal school department, and devoted his efforts to 
the education of teachers ; which now became a chief 
object. In this work, his labors were abundant in 
writing and lecturing, in conducting Teachers' Insti- 
tutes, and in more direct efforts in normal schools. 
In May, 1854, he was chosen the first Superinten- 
dent of the county — having done much to establish 
the present law of the County Superintendency. At 
the opening of the Lancaster County Normal School, 
in November, 1855, he became its Principal, In 1857, 
he purchased the property of the University of northern 
Pennsylvania, and reopened the school witli u])wards 
of one hundred and twenty teachers in attendance. 
The buildings were unfortunately destroyed by fire 
during the same month. By the solicitation of friends 
of education and teachers he established temporarily 
at Montrose, Pennsylvania, "The Susquehanna County 
Normal School," and about three hundred students, 
most of them teachers, annually enjoyed its privileges 
and advantages, until September, 1859. In 1857, he 



OBITUARY. 11 

was elected President of the Pennsylvania State 
Teachers' Association. And in the great revival of the 
same year, finding that his silent attachment to the 
truth was the source of injury to a cause beloved, he 
made very thorough investigations and explanations, 
and with seventy of his students came forward and 
professed faith in Christ. Returning in 1859 to his 
native state, chiefly on account of the facilities afforded 
in the city of New York for pursuing his favorite 
studies, he became Principal of one of the Public 
Schools of that city, where he remained until the be- 
ginning of 1864, when he resigned ; and devoted his 
attention to writing, in the retirement of his native 
town. In 1861, he was baptised by the Rev, Dr. 
Lathrop, and served as a Teacher of a Bible Class in 
the Tabernacle Baptist Church. In Februarj^, 1865, he 
was elected Superintendent of the Sunday School. In 
1868 he transferred his letter to the First Baptist 
Church, Newark, N. J., of .which the Rev. Dr. Fish is 
the beloved Pastor. He was married October 18, 1865, 
to Eliza A., daughter of George W. Piatt, Esq., of New 
York city. After a year spent at Greenfield, he 
became, in September, 1867, a resident of Kearney, 
New Jersey, where the last six years of his life formed 
a rare illustration of the triumph of intellectual and 
moral culture over the ''infirmities of the flesh.'' A 
nervous consumption was the result of arduous and 
unremitting toil, but the buoyancy of his disposition 
and the power of his will at intervals seemed to control 
the disease. Conscious of the frailty of his earthly 
tabernacle he guarded it with extreme care, while he 
pondered much and spoke often of the unseen — the 



12 OBITUARY. 

eternal home. His mathematical turn of mind induced 
the effort to grasp, weigh, solve, analyze truth, but 
he accepted with the faitli of a little child tliose teach- 
ings of the Master that are mysterious and incompre- 
hensible to the wisest in finite lore. The earthen vessel 
that could not measure the ocean sought to be filled 
from its depths. 

At times his path followed the windings of the dark 
river, and wlien his feet entered the chilling tide, as 
one familiar with its flow, he placed his hand in that 
of the Guide, confided all interests to His keeping ; and 
the other shore — the land of life, in wondrous light 
and beauty, gave promise of rest, sweet rest. During 
the last four months he was too feeble to walk, or to 
take solid nourishment, and for three months could 
not endure the fatigue of being carried down stairs. 
Until the last three weeks he was moved, every j^leasant 
day, by his wheel chair, into another room, yet there 
was a steady decrease ot strength. He noted each 
change of symptom, but although he yearned to live, 
although the desire to be active, to be useful, was in- 
tense, he never repined. On the last Sabbath he al- 
luded to the probability that the Great Physician 
would deem it necessary to remove him to the Heavenly 
home ere granting the health for which we prayed, and 
to all queries made answer: "God's way is always 
best. He has been very good to us, we can timsf Him." 
When mention was made of friends gone before, of the 
nearness of re-union, of the society of the pure, the 
true, the good, so congenial, and so loved, he said : 
"The prospect is very glorious." After words of 
tenderness to dear ones, he said : "Give my love to all 



OBITUAKY. 13 

my friends, they have been very kind.'' He was ex- 
tremely weak, but so accustomed to economize and 
utilize his powers, and so solicitious for the comfort 
of others that it was difficult for them to realize his 
condition. 

Infantile in strength, lie was so refined in thought 
and action, so neat, courteous, grand in self-control, in 
all the qualities of a noble manhood, that he com- 
manded the deference and esteem of those whose 
sympathies were aroused by his emaciated and debili- 
tated frame. One month before his departure, when 
obliged to whisper the sentences, he solved a difficult 
mathematical problem with his accustomed ease and 
rapidity, and his interest in everything pertaining to 
the education and the elevation of mankind made his 
sick room a place of interest and instruction. 

His perceptions were clear to the last moment ; at 
half-past four p. m., eight hours before the farewell, 
he gave to the gardener an outline of a specific work. 
In the early eve he recognized friends ; later he ac- 
knowledged, by word and look, the efforts made for 
his comfort — placed his little scarf about his neck with- 
out help — ^bade one and another ' ' Take some rest, ' ' 
and seemed mindful of all that transpired. A little 
before midnight, he motioned to be raised up, and while 
the effort claimed both hands he lifted the spoon to 
his mouth, to guage the heat of the liquid, as was liis 
wont, then drained the cup, but could not swallow. 
Replaced on the pillow, he stretched out his hand, 
called ' ' Mamma ;' ' said ' ' God be merciful, ' ' and gently, 
quitely, peacefully, fell asleep in Jesus. Thus early 
on the morning of August 6tli, 1873, his earth- works 



14 OBITUAEY. 

and words were ended. He left a widow, and a 
danghter of four years, "to inherit the rich legacy of a 
good name, secured by a devoted and spotless life." 

Prof. Stoddard' s marked success as an author is shown 
by the great popularity of his mathematical series of 
text books — a popularity scarcely inferior to that of 
any other series in our country ; and as a sign and seal 
of his love for mathematical science, he gave, in 1868, 
a fund to the Rochester University, which shall furnish 
a gold medal each year, valued at one hundred dollars, 
to the student who shall reach a fixed standard in 
mathematics. So high is the standard that only in 
these past two years has it been taken. The worth 
of his services to the cause of education is attested by the 
many whom his teachings profited, and who say ' ' He 
had few equals." He had trodden the beaten path of 
science, but here and there he discovered a. better. This 
was especially true of mathematics, and to such a 
degree, that Prof. Drew of New York city, in speaking 
of Stoddard' s Mathematical Works, says : "To Colburn 
belongs the honor of introducing Intellectual Arith- 
metic and to Stoddard the honor of perfecting that 
system. If Colburn opened a new road to mathe- 
matical science, Stoddard has leveled that road and 
strewn it with flowers." 

Is there a better way to arrive at and express truth '. 
was his practical query, and recognizing that the mind 
will accept truth, if rightly presented, as eagerly as 
the body receives food he concentrated his faculties in 
bringing tlie mind and the truth together. With un- 
compromising zeal he advocated the daily reading of 
the Bible, (without comment,) in the public schools. 



OBITUAKY, 15 

attesting that the two-fokl nature of man, tlie moral, 
and the intellectual, should be developed simulta- 
neously. He recommended the use of vocal music, 
as conducive to physical, moral, and mental improv- 
ment ; "a lively, happy song, containing good senti- 
ments, having a powerful influence in jirompting pupils 
to do and to love what is right, and to despise and shun 
evil." His labors to arouse attention in the matter of 
education were rewarded by seeing the wave of popu- 
lar interest rise higher and higher. Friends will recog- 
nize his portrait in tlie pen pictures that are scattered 
thi-(iugh his lectures, for, unconsciously, he copied the 
liniaments of the inner man in drawing the ideal — the 
example for his students. A true dignity of character, 
the union of refinement and strength, of the gentler 
with the sterner virtues, wiere exhibited in his walk 
and conversation. Rare abilities and varied culture, 
made available by habits intensely earnest and intensely 
systematic, enabled him to condense into a single score 
of years the work of a life-time. His lectures on the 
elementary branches and on scientific topics are not 
preserved. We subjoin a few of his addresses on 
Educational subjects, that, although dead, he may 
yet speak, and realize the heart's desire, to serve his 
generation by the will of God. 







Address delivered before the Teachers of the Sus- 
quehanna County Normal School, at Montrose, 
September 3rd. 1857. 



Teachers and Friends of Education : 

The chief embarrassment felt by the speaker, on an 
occasion like the present, arises from the fact that the 
great considerations which give birth to our theme 
and aspire the thoughts we ought to express, crowd 
upon the mind with tumultuous haste, in all their 
grandeur, importance and interest. The mind, op- 
pressed with solicitude, struggles with the thought 
that the life of man is full too short to permit the com- 
pletion of the training upon which we, fellow teachers, 
have entered ; and the heart yearns after the precious 
moments whose departures into the eternal past are 
told by its own solemn pulsations. It were well could 
we so engage our minds, for this hour, in a consideration 

3 



18 ADDRESSES. 

of the opportunity that is to foHow this interview, that 
it may assume in our estimation that true value and 
importance which can be felt but not adequately ex- 
pressed^ for it will inevitably afford us, at some future 
time, the occasion of bitter regrets, if, unhappily, it 
does not gain a proper influence over our efforts, while 
its true appreciation may be an advantage to all. 

It is one of the most appalling as well as interesting 
features of our mental constitution, that the faculties 
which are given to us for our cultivation, and which 
are designed to be ministers to our usefulness and 
hap2:>iness, may, by a misuse quite witliin the power 
of a perverted taste to induce, become tlie fruitful 
source of damage to our fellow beings and of misery 
to ourselves. Thus, memory the invol untary i-ecorder of 
passing events, will, one day, fiir future it may be, cheer 
us with happy reminders of the present occasion, and 
of the circumstances that have led to our assembling, 
or goad us with remorse for lost opportunities of gar- 
nering the rich fruitage of wisdom, which, by a timely in- 
dustry, might have provided life with a perpetual feast. 

•The unfortunate child of darkness, upon whose 
sightless orbs Nature has nevei- painted her forms and 
hues of lovliness, may ponder in melancholy doubt over 
his conceptions of beauties which are forever hidden 
behind the thick veil of his infirmity ; but the corroding 
self-reproach of him who has squandered the oppor- 
tunities of acquiring that intellectual and moral culture, 
which is the unfailing source of human happiness and 
glory, can never enter his breast. Self-reproach, the 
most unbearable of all the forms of grief, is the inev- 
itable portion of the sluggard. 



ADDKESSES. 19 

This unwelcome possibility, which besets the path- 
way of every student, forces itself upon tlie mind the 
more strikingl}" when on the countenances of an as- 
sembled body of teachers, we read intelligence and 
conscious virtue, the pronuse that the danger will be 
shunned, and the mists into which the listless are 
drifting be dispelled by the energ}' with wliich their 
duties as students will be met. 

The responsibilities of life are wisely and justly 
meted out to us, and are limited with unerring exacti- 
tude to the opportunities afforded for their discharge. 
As in nature there is perfect harmony and arrangement 
of all the forces which produce the beneficent results 
purposed by the Great Designer, so duty, while it 
urges its demands upon us, brings in its hand the 
means of a faithful and full accomplishment of its 
behests. But the important thought to which your 
attention is now particularly invited is, that the 
moment must be used as it flies. Once past it can 
never be recalled, nor can the future supply its place. 
Youth, manhood and age, each lias its work to accom- 
plish ; and while neither can by possibility borrow 
from the other if it would, neither has ought to lend 
if it could. As in youth it is given us to prepare for 
the work of manhood, in manhood for the position and 
joys of age, and in age for the adieus of mortality and 
the solemnities of a life to come, it follows of necessity 
that delinquency in the morning of life must lessen 
and impair the performances of manhood, rob us of 
the benign influences of age, and introduce us be- 
dwarfed, and stultified, and guilty, upon the life that 
knows no change. 



20 ADDRESSES. 

There is no particular, perhaps, in which we all so 
fearfully fail as in our estimate of the iviportance of 
time. Could we but realize that our future achieve- 
ments must correspond precisely to our present im- 
provement of time, the admonition of the poet, 

"Part with it as with money, sparingly, pay 
No moment but in purchase of its worth," 

would be more seriously heeded. Moreover, it may 
be safely affirmed that no class of society can so illy 
afford to squander it as those to whom we are called 
to speak to-day. 

Mental labor, methodical and assiduous, is the only 
defence against that habit of league tliinking^ in the 
indulgence of which the teacher can but "dream, and 
wonder, and perish." The course of study upon which 
you now enter, embracing not only the investigation 
of severe scientific principles, but of the science and art 
of imparting to others the knowledge you may here 
acquire, renders the faithful and industrious use of 
your privileges as necessary as the profession to which 
you have devoted your lives is laborious, and difficult, 
and responsible. The work of Teaching, in its efficient 
and capable performance, when considered in reference 
to its high responsibility, its power to effect the char- 
acter of the age, or its moral bearing upon the genera- 
tion that is soon to give character to society and to 
administer the affairs of the State, is second to no 
vocation in life. Nor does any afford better guaranties 
of success to the deserving. The pursuit of knowledge 
is always attended with greater or less difficulty, but 
no triumph is more glorious than the conquest of truth. 
The sacrifice of ease is but a small price to pay for 



ADDRESSES. 21 

intellectual eminence, and the failure of any individual 
to attain it, under circiunstances so propitious as those 
wliich attend youi- present outset, would be pitiable 
indeed. Let the true nature of the teacher' s position, 
and his relations to future society only to be felt by 
you, and the virtuous ambition to excel in your sphere 
must inevitably inflame every heart witli zeal. Reflect 
for one moment of tlie power you are destined to wield 
over a coming age. Think you the man wlio to day 
stands in the Senate Chamber, and legislates for the 
toiling millions of freemen who people these States, 
wields an influence at all comparable with tliat com- 
mitted to tlie hands of the conscientious and able 
teacher I He has but partially estimated the affluence 
of his power, and the glory of his mission as the edu- 
cator of a rising nation, who thus decides. The honor- 
able legislator may construct judicial barriers to limit 
the actions of men ; he may exercise a limited control 
over the outworkings of character ; but the teacher in 
his high office, in the exercise of his august prerogative 
of giving moral, uitellectual, and physical character 
to his age, stands infinitely higher in the scale of 
social relationship than he. In view, therefore, of the 
teacher's responsiblity, his opportunity for making his 
mark on his nation and his age, for causing his power 
to be felt upon the destinies of thousands, for securing 
a rich reward for a well-devoted life, how much of the 
present term can you afford to devote to the comfort 
and ease of the passing hou]- '. 

One element favorable to the success which it is 
hoped the present assemblage of teachers will achieve 
is the loftiness of the aim with which they set out. 



22 ADDRESSES. 

Some, it may be, will have conceived an advancement 
beyond the power of the present opportunity to afford ; 
but it should be remembered that nothing will be lost 
by an attempt to reach that point ; while many it may 
be, will fall far short of an eminence positively attain- 
able, through an unnecessary dread of the difficulties 
in the way, and an unworthy distrust of their own 
mental powers. The histories of men eminent for the 
extent of their erudition, acquired under circumstances 
of adversity to which students of the present day are 
strangers, should forever silence the whisperings of 
doubt in the mind of an_v one burning with desire for 
knowledge. Neither condition of life, nor scantiness 
of means, nor mediocrity of intellectual aptness, nor 
all combined, have proved a sufficient obstacle to de- 
feat the purposes of some who have risen to eminence 
among the savans of the world. Prom every rank and 
condition, from every vocation in life, has arisen a star 
to represent that rank or vocation in the bright con- 
stellation of intellectual lights and to challenge the 
admiration of mankind. It cannot be necessary for me 
to tell 3^ou, that excellence cannot be won by soft 
words. "A masterly inactivity" may possess rare 
potency in the mysterious art of diplomacy., but in the 
acquisition of knowledge comprehensive, critical and 
profound ; labor — ardent and unremitting— is the only 
means of success ; and the settled purpose and deter- 
mined will, that cannot be baulked b}^ difficulty, or 
toil, will alone equip us for the conquest of triith. 

Mathematicians, astronomers and linguists have won 
distinction as scholars while they plied tiie awl, or 
worked the forge, or shoved the plane, or followed the 



ADDRESSES. 23 

plow. The m(^i-c'li:iiit snatches an liour from the ab- 
sorbing calculations of commercial gains to store his 
mind with the richer treasuries of scientific; and classic 
lore. The toiling setter of types, while he constructs 
the page that is to expose the ignorance of him who 
writes mucli but thinks little, ponders in silence the 
unexplained phenomena of nature, and anon, gives us 
the key to a science which in its developments shall 
fill the world with light and dissipate the distances 
which render the sons of one portion of the globe alien 
to their brethi'en inhabiting another. The laws of na- 
tions, the duties of statesmanship, the processes of ai-t, 
and the agencies that advance civilization, are an- 
nounced to the world by men whose opportunities for 
intellectual culture have been incomparably less than 
those which fall to the lot of the student of the present 
day. 

Three things are necessary for success in any enter- 
prise of life. An enthusiasm for the pursuit in which 
we engage, a faith that lays its grasp upon the firm 
foundation of truth, and a resolution that admits no 
thought of failure. These are characteristics too sel- 
dom found among men, but which must be cherished 
by us with persistent earnestness if we would make 
our lives contribute to the benefiting of our race. 

Allow us to throw out a few practical hints, which 
will naturally suggest themselves to your own minds 
but wliicli may be rendered more effective by being- 
named in this connection. Study, to be of any perma- 
nent advantage, must be thoroygk. Decision in the 
performance of this duty, or work, is of the greatest 
importance ; for it cannot be denied that thoroiigJiness 



24 ADDRESSES. 

can never be exacted by the discipline of the school. 
An appearance of thoroughness may be forced from 
the student by the rigid discipline of a preceptor, but, 
after all, it will prove but a semblance, and, like the 
early dew, it will pass away as soon as the fear that 
induced it is withdrawn. Be more unwilling to feel 
the consciousness that your task is but indifferently 
performed than to meet your principal in the recitation 
room unprepared to acquit yourself fully and credit- 
abl}^ Ability to escape detection, even in cases of 
actual neglect of duty, is less worthy than oi)en ac- 
knowledgment of faultiness. Your teacher may be 
deceived, but you will be cheated. 

All true progress in learning is inductive ; and he 
who is competent to lead the mind of the learner in its 
course of study will realize this truth. Thus, you pro- 
ceed step by step, and each step in advance sustains 
such relation to what precedes it that none can be 
leaped without damage. It is the fullness and exact- 
ness with which we understand the relations of the 
principles of things that determine the extent of our 
learning, rather than the multiplicity of principles with 
which we may become, to a showy extent, familiar. 
Study means something more than making one's self 
acquainted with the thoughts of an author. Acquaint- 
ance must be increased to familiarity, and familiarity 
by profound meditation must be absorbed in identity. 
That is, the truth as taught must not remain a bor- 
rowed idea, dwelling with us, but become a part of 
our own mental being, by the process of mental assim- 
ilation. It is through this use of acquired learning that 
we are enabled, by arriving early at the stage where our 



ADDRESSES. 25 

author lias dismissed the subject, to push scientitic in- 
quiry still further, and, it may l)e, develop bearing;? 
and relations hitherto unknown. To be learned, we 
must be exact. In the pursuit of severe study (all 
study is in some sense severe,) we are prone to stop 
short of a clear and complete understanding of the 
subject under consideration — -to rest contented with 
an approximation to completeness. The mind wearies, 
and the sense of the importance of the investigation 
flags. This is an experience common to all students ; 
but the difficulty is not insurmountable, and must be 
overcome. Habits of systematic mental exercise will 
very soon enable us to employ the hours appropriated 
to study, with all the powers of the mind, without 
great weariness. Severe and fitful effort will ere long 
exhaust the powers of the mind, and should therefore 
be avoided. Hence, no indulgence should be allowed 
to trench upon the proper hours of study. Nor 
should the efforts be unduly prolonged. Relaxation 
is necessary and, systematically observed, will so re- 
plenish the mind with vigor, that with due proportions 
of labor and rest more can be accomplished than by 
constant toil. The student should also bear in mind 
that dissipation is not relaxation. 

To lay down the text-book, and walk the flelds, our 
thoughts meanwhile dwelling upon the-subject of study 
affords little or no relaxation, and should be avoided. 
On such occasions it would be far better to dismiss the 
subject of study entirely, and engage the seiises in the 
exercise of close and accurate observation. To train 
the eye to detect all the qualities of a given object 
within its reach, and so of touch and the other senses, 

4 



26 ADDRESSES. 

is an exercise of inestimable value, as will readily ap- 
pear, when we consider that the accuracy of our per- 
ceptions depend upon the faithfulness of our senses, 
and the soundness of our judgment upon the com- 
pleteness of our perceptions. 

In all characteristics of cultivated men and women, 
teachers should present proper examples for those over 
whom they preside. It is not in the capacity of a 
tutor only that the educator of the ^'oung is destined 
to exert an influence, but in that of a moral and social 
pattern also. It would seem that vulgarity of man- 
ners, and doubtful morality, would afford nothing- 
congenial to the man of cultivation ; but such is the 
nature of our dispositions that we need to guard every 
point of exposure. Moreover, in the freedom of fa- 
miliar intercourse, such as the present course of study 
will allow, there is a liability to relax the restraints 
which our own good sense would declare to be neces- 
sary while in the presence of those who are to receive 
their ideas of propriety from us. The true remedy for 
any possible defect in the particular to which we refer 
is to adopt as our governing principle that line of de- 
portment on all occasions which will bear the severest 
scrutiny ; and avoiding affectation of every descrip- 
tion imbibe habits of cliasteness, courtesy, tnanliness^ 
and ease, which, combined, constitute true dignity 

OF CHARACTER. 

The fact that, in our own country more particularly, 
yoivng men and young looinen are called to assume 
important positions and to participate in the responsi- 
bilities of life renders it needful that in tlie training of 
YOUTH the external qualities of true gentlemen and 



ADDRESSES. 27 

ladies should bo inculcated simultaiieously with the 
development of the mind, that the impress of the age 
may exhibit with youth, energy and enterprise the re- 
spectability of polished character. 

We propose to throw out a few practical hints. It 
will not, theiefore, be transcending our privilege, to 
intimate, that there are habits indulged by those who 
enjoy the high position and exert the influence of 
teachers that cannot be copied by their pupils without 
damage to themselves and exceeding annoyance to 
others. We do not hesitate to say, that habits which 
impair the health and abridge the influence of all who 
indulge them ought to be assiduously avoided by 
those who assume the position and ofiice of the edu- 
cator. It is a well known fact (and one fearfully illus- 
trated by the course of events in some parts of our 
country) that open and uncondemned violations of 
one branch of statute law tend to diminish and finally 
to destroy public regard for all law ; tliat a successful 
avoidance of constitutional obligation, in the smallest 
particular, ere long gives the reins to desii'e, and sub- 
jects the whole fabric of governmental restraints to tlie 
proud contempt of vaulting ambition. These are facts 
which we tridy deem to be worthy of every teacher' s 
consideration. What office, what position, what sta- 
tion can you desire or conceive of, fellow teachers, 
more exalted than that committed to you, as the dis- 
pensers of character to the generation which is to 
follow you — to measure and allot the height and depth 
of the intellectual training and popular scholarship, 
and to fix the standard of public virtue for the sons 
and daughters of our State, when those who now ad- 



28 ADDRESSES. 

minister and expound its laws, support its high honor 
and develop its vast resources have passed the threshold 
of that inevitable sepulchre where each succeeding 
generation finds repose \ Encouraged by all that is 
hopeful, and worthy, and glorious, in the motives that 
prompt the intelligent mind and generous heart, ad- 
monished by the brevity of life and the magnitude of 
the work of preparation make firm your resolves, while 
Time, by the eager wafture of his pinions, provokes 
your tireless effort to achieve your noble purpose ere 
you die. 

The broad fields of inquiry upon which you have 
already entered, and which have yielded you the first 
rewards of successful effort, are laden with still richer 
fruits, that lie beyond and invite you forward. Their 
golden fruitage and resplendent bloom are fitted to 
enrich and adorn your noble nature, and if garnered 
with cheerful industry and truthfulness of purpose will 
not fail to pay into your minds and hearts in bountiful 
measure the intellectual and moral wealth your perse- 
verance will deserve. Let your motto be, "higher, 
still higher," until you have reached the loftiest sum- 
mit of scholastic attainment, and paid the last install- 
ment of that God-imposed obligation, " good- will 
towards men." 




ADDRESSES. 29 

The Teachee's Influence in the Formation of Char- 
acter: AN address delivered BEFORE THE SUSQUE- 
HANNA County Normal School, in 1857. 



One of the most promising features of the present 
time is the prevalent disposition to organize associa- 
tions for moral and. intellectual culture, through inter- 
change of sentiments, and friendly debate. This fact 
is noteworthy, as its effects are clearly visible in the 
moral and intellectual improvement of the masses of 
our communities. 

It was the distinguishing feature of the religious 
dispensation, inaugurated by the Son of God, that it 
invited to its embrace and to the enjoyments of its 
rewards the great masses of fallen humanity. Prin- 
ciples of sound morality had been given to the world 
thousands of years before His advent, but through the 
growing selfishness and repeated usurpations of the 
powerful the advantages of high cultivation had become 
the inheritance of the few, while the masses of the 
race had been sunken in ignorance and superstition. 
The new dispensation was intended to bring amelioration 
and exaltation to the lowly, and that through the 
medium of teaching. 

The present age is proverbially a period of mental 
and moral activity. The popular mind, too proud of 
its attainments, vaunts its newly established theories 
in Science and Political Economy, all incoatroDertlhli/ 
true, yet strange to say as diverse as the dispositions 
of men ; and the morality of our da}^ assumes to have 
laid broad and fair the pathway of human responsi- 



30 ADDRESSES. 

bility. Yet amid all that is so clearly established in 
intelligence and morals the surges of agitation — so 
bitter as to create wide-spreading alineation, to change 
the face of a brother to that of a stranger and the 
sympathies of friendship to the animosities of foemen — 
beat more and more violently about the ark of human 
weal, till it seems likely to be overwhelmed in the 
tumult. 

The very conflict of which we speak is, we trust, 
however, onl}' significant of the mighty struggling of 
truth for conquest over error and wrong. The industry 
displayed in the analyzation of principles and the 
unveiling of mysteries is, it would seem, an earnest 
that the occasion of these collisions will finally be 
removed, and the mists that envelop the laws of re- 
ciprocal obligation will one day be dispelled. 

To you whose duty it is to discipline the minds and 
hearts of the young — of those wlio are to carry forward 
the work of investigation, and administer the affairs of 
State in the succeeding generation, it is scarcely neces- 
sary to say, that activity is no infallible pioof of pro- 
gress, nor is the confident avowal of theory con(;lusive 
evidence of its truth. In exact proportion to the mul- 
tiplicity of the theories which are addressed to the 
minds and hearts of our people, is the necessity for 
some standard of judgment by which the learner may 
test the value of that which is proffered as truth. It 
is a favorite doctrine of our statesmen that, in questions 
of Political Economy, the masses of the people judge 
rightly. If this be true, the reason is obvious. The 
mass of the people being removed from the warping 
influence which misled those more closely connected 



ADDRESSES. 31 

with the machinery of government, they promptly 
resolve all qnestions of human rights by a reference to 
their own consciousness of what is obedient toward 
God, and just to their fellow man. Nor is this doctrine 
more true than, in its bearing upon the interests com- 
mitted to your hand as Educators, it is useful and 
important. 

There was a time when the loftiest aim ascribable 
to the popular educator was to dispense, from his 
garnered store of ruleii and exceptions^ a sufficient 
amount of rudimental learning to enable the pupils 
to estimate in the future the products of his toil, and 
read in his own tongue the history of the land of his 
birth. But that time has passed away. The insensi- 
bility which for so many ages presided over the minds 
of communities with reference to the intellectual culti- 
vation of the masses, was scarcely equal in its intensity 
to the eagerness with which the enlightened portions 
of the American people now urge on the neglected 
work of universal education. 

The faithful but unambitious pedagogue has sought 
a more congenial sphere among the opposers of book 
LEAKNi^s^G. He has retired to the haunts of the few 
who stand aloof from the current of human progress ; 
the rude and comfortless school-house is rapidly giving 
place to the beautiful, well-appointed Graded and High 
Schools ; and the accomplishments of those called to 
preside over these noble institutions of learning bear 
some just proportions to the important services required 
at their hands. 

The educator of the preseni day is the former of 
cJiaracter, and in this capacity as truly controls the 



32 ADDRESSES. 

destinies of a coming generation as the monarch on his 
throne wields the sceptre of government over the sub- 
jects of his realm. 

If, in our view of the teacher's sphere of influence, 
there is much to exalt our estimation of his vocation, 
there is much more to provoke solicitude and an earnest 
endeavor to meet its responsibilities with faithfulness 
and ability. 

We proprose to offer a few thoughts on the work of 
the Educator in its effects upon the formation of 
character. 

Dismissing all that may be said of a knowledge of 
the sciences in aid of civilization, and as essential to 
the development and discipline of the mind, as cover- 
ing too wide a field for the present discussion, it may 
suffice to consider for a few moments the chief element 
of human character, which we assume to be a just sense 
of moral resjyonsibility. 

The history of mankind is one unbroken confirma- 
tion of the truth we advance, that in every exhibition 
of greatness among men the moral element towers 
infinitely above the proudest efforts of intellect. On 
everj^ field of contest, the right must ultimately tri- 
umph over might. There is scarcely a name on the 
page of history whose glory, if glory it have, has not 
been won by the moral purpose or bias of its hero 
rather than by the exertion of powers merely intellect- 
ual ; for through the goodness of one' s character alone 
can he live in the hearts of his posterity. It is not in 
prowess alone to command the veneration of mankind. 

The generous pledge of emancipation from priestly 
and imperial tyranny drew to the side of the greatest 



ADDRESSES. 33 

conqueror of nioderii times the invincible hosts who 
poured out their warm blood on the fields of Austerlitz 
and of Jena ; but the hero of a tliousand victories grew 
impotent to prevail in the liour that liis lieart yielded 
its purpose of fidelity to his race, to the ambition that 
made him an Emperoi'. 

We need but mention the name of him who, with 
filial gratitude, we denominate the Father of our 
Country ! — who, by the moulding influence of parental 
training, received those elements of moral chai'acter 
which held him superior to the pleadings of ambition, 
and enabled him to preserve inviolate those purposes 
of unswerving justice which crowned him with the 
honors and responsibilities of Cliief Magistracy, — to 
bring to your minds one of tlie proudest illustrations 
of human greatness that the world has ever witnessed. 

The principles so clearly applicable to those who 
have been conspicuous in the world's history, apply 
with equal justice to those in humbler spheres of in- 
fluence. 

Tlie history of tlie human family is a record of strife, 
violent and sanguinary when led on by mad ambition, 
earnest and unfaltering when inspired by the more 
peaceful promptings of genius, discovery or philan- 
thropy. So comparatively few, liowever, were the 
events that told upon the destinies of man in earlier 
times, that a single chapter suffices to tell the story 
of the rise and fall of a dynasty, and a few brief vol- 
umes are the only memorials left us of once mightj^ 
nations, their follies and false philosophy, their boasts 
and signal failures. 

Not so is it with tlie present actors on the stage of 

5 



34 ADDRESSES. 

life. Governments continue to be successive experi- 
ments, and the theories of to-day are boasted contra- 
dictions of yesterday ; but events, momentous and 
decisive, follow each other v^^ith such rapid succession 
that the annalist vi^lio fails to note the developments of 
each hour, loses golden links from the historic chain. 

The God of Providence with unfailing beneficence 
bestows the sunshine and the shower, and recurring- 
seasons yield their accustomed harvest to reward the 
toiling millions of earth ; but e?iaracte7\ that wdiich 
gives form and feature to a people's history is in a 
large degree the entailment of a preceding generation. 

It behooves us, indeed, to consider the momentous 
fact that it is not only the prerogative, but the inevit- 
able necessity of life, that we bequeath to the genera- 
tion that follows us the characteristics which are to 
determine in an important degree their happiness and 
usefulness. 

Our race owes its progress to the excepted few who, 
receiving a bias elevating them above the mass of the 
living around them, lift higher and higher the standard 
of individual and national character. We presume 
that it will not be gainsay ed that we accomplish far 
less by what we do, than what, by our example and 
influence, we induce others to do. It is peculiarly 
the duty of the popular educator to look foi'ward to 
the period when his own w^ork being done, and his 
wearied brow pillowed on the lap of earth, the senti- 
ments of his heart shall continue to exert their force 
through the lives of the hundreds, or it may be 
thousands of influential citizens whose moral and in- 
tellectual bias is the fruit of his own inculcations. 



ADDRESSES. 35 

We need not fear boldly to declare that the loDe of 
right, not the mere apprehension of right, but the 
LOVE of right, is the chief element of greatness of 
charactei'. The self-evident truth contained in this 
proposition is theoretically admitted ; but we aver, 
that in the out-wrought motives and sympathies of 
mankind, it is almost universall}^ denied. 

The dazzling corruscatir)ns of learning, wealth and 
fame, too certainly eclipse the steady glow of moral 
truth. " Knowledge is power," says the philosopher. 
It is more. Considered apart from an inflexible ad- 
herence to Justice and mercy, it is an ungovernable 
evil. It may be. nay it very frequently is, a blighting 
curse, whose baneful tendencies may be estimated by 
the sum of native selhshness, augmented by the intel- 
lectual and physical forces which extensive learning 
commands. The man of merely intellectual education 
worships at but one shrine, and that within the pre- 
cincts of his own bosom. From this, the altar of his 
idolatry, he can withhold no sacrifice, however its offer- 
ing may infringe upon the rights and interests of his 
common brotherhood. 

We then, fellow teachers, however worthy any of us 
may fulfill the high responsibility of our calling as 
fashioners of character, have need to inquire how we 
shall best acquit ourselves. The wise economy, which 
gives to the moral nature of man a rank superior to 
the claims of body or mind, has made the harmonious 
growth and development of all his faculties the means 
of human happiness and usefulness. We are not bid- 
den to relax our hold upon the agencies which develop 
the mind and oyjen those fountains of scholastic truth 



36 ADDRESSES. 

which thft thirsting intellect craves ; nor veil from the 
mind the fascinations of natural science by interpos- 
ing the misty forms of ethical inquiry. No, we have 
only to recognize the ri^ative superiority of that prin- 
ciple of man's nature, by virtue of which he gathers 
into his own bosom the largest amount of personal 
happiness, and dispenses to his fellow-ni(Mi the liighest 
degree of benefit of which he is capable. 

The cultivation of pure affections, of an unswerving 
regard for tnitli and rigid — so far from its throwing 
impediments in the way of intellectual progress, will 
give beauty and dignity to the revelations of science, 
and render the acquisition of learning a grntifying 
motive to industrious study. 

We do not attach to the term education that stu- 
pendous meaning which signifies the whole course of 
gaining knowledge ; nor do we believe the term Jias 
properly any such signification. We suppose it is to 
signify that course of improvement which is pursued 
under the auspices of a teacher. Mountains and 
brooks, and all the fair aspects of nature, and the 
hard limits of experience are teachers, and by them 
we are taught in an implied sense ; but to teach is 
strictly the province of the parent and the school- 
master. In this sense we use it. It then has a begin 
ning and an ending. 

That period of life when the mind and heart are 
usually committed to the care of the teacher, though 
short, is valuable beyond expression, and all the more 
valuable because it is short. The teacher occupies a 
position which is calculated to gain him great in- 
fluence over the hearts as well as minds of the young. 



ADDRESSES. 37 

His familiarity witli priii(n})les, whicli to them seem 
almost incomprehensible ; the learning whicli to them 
appears vast and scarcely possible of attainment, thus 
found to be entirely at his command ; the readiness 
with wliich he can relieve them of their perplexities, 
and the cheerful air with which he renders them aid in 
times of deep embarrassment ; these all do, or should 
unite to constitute him a loved oracle in their midst, 
and give him the key to the treasure-house of the 
affections, as well as the minds over which he presides. 
His example affords them a pattern of excellence, his 
maxims are the true basis of sentiment, and his pre- 
cepts go down deeply into the heart, and this is no 
more than the natural result of the relation and inter- 
course subsisting between pupil and teacher. He who 
cannot command this result in a noteworthy degree 
presents in this item of failure sufficient proof of inca- 
pacity for the position, and should hasten to cultivate 
the art of so exhibiting the elements of the teacher's 
character, to which we allude, as to secure the com- 
manding influence wdiich we claim for his office. 

The course of study in each department presents 
names and characters, and. achievments, and events 
which are calculated to excite ambition, or love, or 
dislike, or hope in each pupil. How easily may the 
young student in philosophy be made to A^enerate the 
character of Sir Humphrey Davy, by presenting to 
him the usefulness of his discoveries, in connection 
with his name, and the conquered trials to his perse- 
verence, through which he won success. And while 
he venerates the great philosopher whose results he is 
made to contemplate, the desire to distinguish himself 



38 ADDRESSES. 

by acts as beneficial to mankind will burn within him. 
So of Newton, and of Franklin, and of a host of other 
worthies in the fields of science, and literature, and 
statesmanship, and divinity. 

It is then the especial province of the teacher to 
apply these powerful agencies to the minds and hearts 
of pupils, with a view to afford them eJiaracter for 
their admiration, principles for their guidance, motives 
for their incitement, and purposes for their adoption. 

There are characters, too, which have won too much 
of praise, of undeserved eulogium ; which it is clearly 
the duty of the teacher to mark and reprobate. There 
can be but little danger of erring in this matter. Look 
at full grown results. It is vain to dwell admiringly 
upon characteristics that have yielded no permanent 
good to mankind. It is feeble and unworthy, if not 
criminal, to indulge in mere hero worship— to indulge 
in rhapsodies over prostituted talents ; to portray in 
witching colors the splendid outrages of unprincipled 
genius, and the brilliant barbarities of heaven-defying 
men, whose misused talents enabled them to escape a 
felon's death, at the end of a worse than felon's life. 
Their names appear in the records of the past ; but it 
is due to those whose minds and hearts may be affected 
by their perusal to direct the thought to the unlovli- 
ness of character rather than to the splendid talents 
which that character has despoiled. Let the reader of 
history mark the many whose matchless energies have 
been devoted, without sci'uple, to the conquest of 
territory, or to the accumulation of wealtli, oi- the 
usurpation of power, and tell us when and where 
civilization has gained aught by theii- achievements. 



ADDRESSES. 89 

Civilization, and science, and literature, and morals 
may well afford to dispense with the services of the 
vicious, however splendid their intellectual qualities, 
rather than assume the correction of their wrongs, and 
attempt to blanch the sullied vestments of public 
virtue, polluted by their impure touch. 

Two things, at least, are necessary in order to re- 
spectable success in any of the enterprises of life. 
First, an ability to discriminate between that which 
is real and substantial, and that which is false or 
ephemeral. Secondly, a tolerably clear appreciation 
of the means appropriate to be used in order to gain 
a right end. These two requisites presuppose the ne- 
cessity of a purpose as the basis of all worthy effort. 
This purpose should be clearly formed, and youth is 
the fitting time for its formation. It is usual for those 
who preside over our institutions of learning, outgiving 
the parting hand and benediction to the departing 
class, to counsel them to adopt good resolutions and 
exalted purposes for their government and safeguard, 
as they go out into the great w^orld to act each his part 
on the stage of life. We have no words of condemna- 
tion to utter respecting this wholesome counsel ; but 
cannot resist the thought that the most essential item 
in the course of his education has been omitted, if the 
young man can have arrived at the hour of graduation, 
from the institution where his education has been 
received, not having yet formed his purpose of life, 
nor pursued the closing years of his study with posi- 
tive reference to such purpose. Too many, indeed, are 
seen to enter at once upon a struggle for reputation^ in 
a way to indicate that fame, or a reputation flattering 



40 ADDRESSES. 

to their self-esteem, is the object of their higliest am- 
bition ; and the tendency of their choice, thus early 
indicated, is direct evidence that sucli purpijse was 
the result of the inculcations to which they had been 
subjected during the formative years of life. How un- 
fortunate he who enters upon the responsibilities of 
life with no loftier design than to win for himself the 
idolatrous regard of his fellow-man '. No man can 
afford to despise the good opinion of his fellows, but 
that is a regard too dearly purchased which is the 
fruit of effort exerted solely with reference to self- 
aggrandisement. 

It is also worthy of note that those who thus early 
display the intention to secure for themselves reputa- 
tion and fame, succeed in their endeavors, while those 
who come more tardily into the possession of a given 
purpose go halting through life, however exalted may 
be such purpose ultimately. We would have the first 
lessons taught in our schools set before the pupil the 
fact that he possesses powers of mind and affection 
which are given to him for a purpose. That around 
him, throughout the habitable globe, dwell multitudes 
of his race, who are groping amid the darkness and 
among the pitfalls of ignorance and vice. That the 
noblest effort of man is to shed light upon that dark- 
ness, and to snatch his fellow mortals from the snares 
that menace and entrap them. 

The standard of human excellence should be no less 
than the life and precepts of that God-given example 
to mankind, whose advent into our world awoke the 
celestial chorus, "Peace on earth and good-will toward 
men." So let us teach. Having a purpose, hallowed 



ADDRESSES. 41 

by the lite and teachings of the founder of Chris- 
tianity, the youthful mind may be readily taught to 
discriminate between that which is truly great and 
truly benevolent, and that which wins applause but 
secures little or no good result to the cause of suffering 
humanity. Alas, there is no lack of cases in our own 
country to illustrate the hollowness of false philan- 
trophy, and the cruelty of high authority prostituted 
to the service of time-serving dispositions. 

The various avocations of men each furnish us, in 
these times, lessons of instruction which may be used 
properly and forcibly to illustrate the high duties of 
life, and the true sphere of real greatness. That which 
turns to bitter ashes on the lip is known to be but the 
apple of Sodom, however fair an exterior the fruit may 
present ; while that which sustains and vitalizes the 
moral energies of mankind, is known to be true manna, 
however insignificant in form and color, or little suited 
to the popular taste of the day. 

The increasing interest manifested by communities 
in the educational efforts of the present times is the 
teacher's ground of hope. The obstacles in the way 
of a full use of the means of education are rapidlj^ 
passing away, and' the future of the profession is one 
of bright and cheering promise. As we have already 
intimated, there is less to fear from a want of intel- 
lectual ti-aining and improvement than from an absence 
of that high moral cultivation, through which learning- 
is to be made available for the future benefit and glory 
of oui* people. 

Let the teachers of Pennsylvania unite with those of 
her sistei- States to develop and fortify the virtue of 

6 



42 ADDRESSES. 

her sons and daughters ; and the prosperity and renown 
of her social institutions will beciome an inevitable 
consequence, and the liigh honor of her educators the 
pride and boast of a happy and useful people. 



Address before the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion OF New York City, 1864. 



In responding to your invitation to address you, on 

this occasion, I have chosen as a theme " Tlte Ohject 

< 
and some of the Elements of Success In Life.'' 

It is scarcely necessary to advance the idea that, in 
all the j)urposes and pursuits of life, w^e are amenable 
to a system of laws to struggle against which must 
ever be a painful and fruitless endeavor, while efforts 
put forth in harmony with those laws can never fail 
of securing the desired object and of bringing with 
them a rich reward. Disregard the Overruling Power 
as we may the history of our race confirms the poet' s 
maxim: "There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, 
rdugh-hew them as we will." The insatiable craving 
of the human soul, the life-long struggle of the ages of 
the past, tell us that we must look to a mind less 
erring, to a heart that cannot be swayed b}' the passing 
hour, for principles on wliich to found the purposes 
and rules of life. Experience, while it respects the mis- 
takes and disappointments of other years, adds new 
lessons in proof of plan in the Divine government ; 
development and progress in all the forces of nature 



ADDRESSES. 43 

suggest to us the highest aim of whicli the soul is 
capable — the fullest development of its native powers 
— Physical, Moral and Intellectual. 

The accumulation of wealth, the conquest of empires, 
the attainment of renown, in themselves, are not motives 
worthy of our manhood. Tlie immortal mind is to be 
burnished, wisdom and goodness are to be sought for 
their intrinsic value, ere we find that noblest work of 
God — "an honest, intelligent man." 

He who labors constantly for his own elevation in 
the scale of virtuous existence, and aids others in the 
attainment, has a character as enduring as the eternal 
hills, one that will survive the wreck of worlds, xlnd 
he has a self-respect that the gold, and honors, of a 
kingdom cannot buy. A character composed of intelli- 
gence, integrity, and brotherly love should be the grand 
aim, and object of life. 

The error of the world is found in ex'alting the means 
to the dignity and position of the end. This caused 
the idolatrous worship of objects that were appointed 
to symbolize Deity. In our day the disposition to pay 
to position the homage due to principle and to success, 
the commendation whicli should alone be the reward 
of virtuous actions prevents that advancement in high 
civilization and intellectual greatness which the circum- 
stan(;es of the age demands. The fact that one' s ex- 
perience is seldom wrought out on a larger scale than 
that upon which the purposes of life are based justi- 
fies the position that youth or earl}^ manhood is by far 
the most important part of human existence, since 
within its years of buoyant hope the plans of life are 
hxed. 



44 ADDRESSES. 

The history of our great men affoids undeniable 
proof, that the objects of life being fully understood 
and firmly lixed, attainment is comparativel}^ a cer- 
tainty. "-Man is what he is, but can he what he wills.'" 
That which distinguishes great, good and famous men 
from all others, more than an3^thing else, is this one 
thing— Will, Puiyose ; a determination foi-med, a plan 
arranged, and then resolution, energy, invention, bent 
inflexibly and unconquerably upon success. 

We hear a great deal said about (jermis and talent. 
Genius, like the flash of a meteor, dazzles for a moment 
and then disappears. Talent, like gold in a mine, has 
little worth until freed from dross. Purpose makes 
the meteor a fixed star, and refines the gold till its 
impurities have all disappeared. Still, multitudes live 
and float down the current of life as leaves on the 
bosom of the winding stream, having no definite will, 
no fixed purpose. They are born possessed of average 
ability, attain to positions of respectable mediocrity, 
and die leaving little or no trace of their existence. It 
need not be so — it should not be so. Every human 
being, not incapacitated by disease or malformation, is 
capable of doing something noble, something grand, if 
he would only set about it and persevere in its prose- 
cution. 

God is not such a partial being as to endow some 
favorite children with gifts utterly denied to others. 
There is a diversity of gifts, I allow, but all are gifted 
in some way and capable of eminence if they are but 
willing to work for it. 

If you desire to be anything, if you desire to get 
anything, if you desire to do anything, if it is within 



ADDKESSES. 45 

tile range of human attainment, you can be^ get^ do it, 
if it shall become the unalterable ^?^77;o.9e of your life. 
Above all things avoid that foolish and culpable dis- 
trust of yourselves which not only prevents you be- 
lieving yourself capable of doing what you desire, but 
even pnn-ents your tnjimj. The prov^erb "Patience 
and persevereiice will accomplish all things'' though 
old is nevertheless as true as it is important in fixing 
and measuring the sphere of man's usefulness and 
powei'. 

What every human being needs in order to find and 
fill his place usefully and acceptably is. first, some 
knowledge of himself — for what he is peculiarly fitted 
and can most successfully pursue. The English sj^stem 
is all wrong here, the French and American right. In 
England if i\\e father is a collier, a fisherman, a scul- 
lion, a sweep, a bootblack, a porter ; if the mother is a 
washerwoman, a scrub, a drudge, sons and daughters 
must be brought up and bound over to the same trade. 
Not so here, not so in France ; it should not be so any- 
where. When we remember that iEsop, Tenence and 
Epictetus were slaves, that Luther and Duval in early 
life were beggars, that Haydn, Johnson, Hunter, and 
a multitude more of famous men, sprang from obscurity 
and indigence, we see the injustice of compelling the 
young to do and he just what their elders have done 
and been before them. 

Every person, then, should know something of him- 
self before 'beginning or resolving upon any course 
of life, and then forin, first, a definite purpose. 
When clearly dt^fined and thoroughly understood 
this purpose should become, secondly, firmly settled, 



46 ADDRESSES. 

and finally unalterably fixed— not subject to the 
change of caprice or whim, not vacillating, uncertain 
and effervescent, but immutably established, and it 
will accomplish almost anything. 

Allow me to call your attention to a few of the many 
hundreds and thousands of examples illustrative of 
the truth of the assertion '' that man ma}^ be whatever 
he wills," if his desire and course of action be not at 
variance with the teachings and will of Divine Provi- 
dence. 

Thirty-eight years ago was born in Bordeaux, France, 
the daughter of a poor artist, who, when the child was 
in her seventh yen,r, removed to Paris to bett<-^r his con- 
dition. Failing to do this, he was obliged to give 
lessons in drawing for support, and to live in the sixth 
story of a crowded house. His daughter had already 
formed a purpose to become an artisU but her father, 
sickening at the thought of her repeating the experience 
of poverty and suffering which he had endured, ap- 
prenticed her to a seamstress. Eight days of suffering, 
which told fearfuU}^ upon her delicate frame, convinced 
him that this would not do, and he gathered means 
enough to send her to a second-rate boarding-school. 
Still her cheek grew pale, her form thin, and sli<^ was 
taken home again. Her father supposed she would 
waste her time in wandering about the streets and 
fields, but she did not. Her purpose was formed to 
become an artist. 

All he could teach her was soon acquired, and then 
for years it became her daily delight to resort to the 
famous picture galleries of the French capitol and 
sketch the works of the great masters. She was soon 



ADDRESSES. 47 

remarked as the iriost indefatigable and persevering art 
student in Paris, and lier purpose became dimly re- 
vealed. But she was only a poor young girl, slight 
and retiring, and the public passed her by. Still, true 
to her purpose, she wandered out into the solitudes of 
nature, content at niglit to climb up six flights of 
stairs to her poor, miserable home, if but one idea was 
added to her alivady rich stock. 

Desirous of perfecting herself as a painter of animals 
she became a frequent visitor to the Parisian slaughter- 
houses, and there, nothwithstanding her shrinking 
sensitiveness — in si)ite of the blood of the shamble, the 
bello wings and struggles of frightened or infuriated 
beasts and the brutality of the butchers — she would 
spend whole days sketching cattle of all kinds from 
life. Her purpose now became evident and her name 
known. Some of lier pictures were placed upon exhi- 
bition, and approved b}^ the best judges in the land. 
Still she labored as assiduously and faithfully as ever, 
and now lias become the best painter of animals in the 
world. One of her productions has been brought to this 
country, and was on exhibition in New York, for which 
$12,000 was refused. Tiiis work was not finished in a 
week, a month, or a year, but cost her eigldeeti 
inontJis of unremitting application. Such is Rose 
BoNHEUR, a woman but thirty-eight years of age, 
deservedly famous throughout the world of art, be- 
cause she began and has continued her career with a 
purpose, from which she has never swerved, to wliicli 
she continues true and loyal through all the dangers 
of notoriety and the rewards of emolument. 

One hundred and eight years ago the son of an Eng- 



48 ADDRESSES. 

lish upholsterer inherited a comfortable independence 
from his father, and began his travels by engaging 
passage from London to Lisbon. During the voyage 
his vessel was captured by a French privateei-, and him- 
self and crew locked up in a filthy dungeon in Bfest, 
where for six nights they slept upon the bare tloor in a 
state of semi- starvation. This experience gave to the 
young man a puvpose which never forsook him, but 
grew continually stronger and stronger until it was in- 
terrupted by death. 

He visited all Europe ; from the western shores of 
Ireland to the dreary regions of Russian Tartary ; from 
the sunny climes of Southern Italy to the frozen realm 
of the Norseman ; not to admire the stateliness of 
palaces, or surve}^ the mighty rivers of antiquity ; not 
to tread the battlefields' of buried nations, and collect 
curious relics of departed granduer ; not to study the 
habits, and survey the activities of nations foreign to 
his own, but to dive into the depths of underground 
dungeons ; to breathe the noxious air of loathsome 
lazarettos ; to survey the squalid wretchedness of 
plague-smitten hospitals ; to take the gauge and meas- 
ure the dimensions of human want, despair and lielp- 
less woe ; to remember the forgotten : to call upon the 
unvisited ; to care for tiie neglected ; to help the help- 
less ; to look into and alleviate the distresses of all 
men, in every city and country he visited. This was 
the purpose of his life. Long and expensive journeys 
did not interfere with it ; danger — from accidents, from 
disease, from robbery — did not change it. It was car- 
ried, undiminished, through crowded almshouses, nois- 
ome with pestilence and disease ; through gloomy cells 



ADDRESSES. 49 

of Jails and prisons ; through bridewells and peniten- 
tiaries ; until debtors, invalids, and criminals, throngh- 
out the European continent, had learned to bless the 
name, to clierish the memory of John Howard ; and 
deliberative assemblies came forward with honors and 
gratitude to approve his goodness. 

Somewhat more than tlirer hundred years before 
Christ, the son of a Grecian blacksmith gathered a 
crowd around him in the streets of Athens to enlist 
their aid in recovery of his patrimony', of which he 
had been fraudulently deprived. He had short breath, 
a squeaking voice, a stammering delivery, a weak and 
repulsive appearance, and excited laughter and jeers 
rather than sympathy. Before the regular tribunal he 
succeeded no better, his cause and himself being dis- 
missed in derision. But he had a purjDose. He went 
home and built a room under ground ; lie shaved his 
head, dieted, filled his mouth with pebbles, practiced 
gestures and delivery for a month ; came out and ran 
along the sea shore and up steep hills to lengthen his 
breath and strengthen his voice, studied, wrote, de- 
claimed, and at last appeared once more in public. He 
was hardly recognized. He succeeded ; he gained his 
cause. Honors and wealth flowed in upon him, but 
still he toiled, studied, practiced with unremitted as- 
siduity and perseverance ; true to the purpose he had 
formed in the beginning, and finally stood on the 
topmost pinnacle of fame. His fiery and vehement 
eloquence swayed Athenian assemblies as the wind 
sways tli<^ grain, and even Kings trembled when they 
heard that Demostiiexes would speak against them. 

Centuries ago, a man of small statnre but energetic 

7 



50 ADDRl!?5SES. 

mien drove impetuously towards the gates of the 
Syrian city. A sword unsheathed was in his liand, 
fire in liis eye, and murder in his heart. The panting 
steeds of his followers had hardly reached his side 
when a flash of dazzling light darted from heaven and 
he fell blinded and paralyzed to the earth. He arose 
transformed. His sword was sheathed, his eyesight 
gone, his will subdued, his pride and malice de- 
stroyed ; but still a man of will^ of 'purpose^ strong 
as ever. Three years of careful study and imploring 
prayer in Arabian solitudes did not change it. Sus- 
picion, distrust and persecution from his friends did not 
shake it. The endurance of five times forty stripes, save 
one," beatings three-fold Avith rods, once being stoned 
and left for dead, and shipwrecks three, did not lessen 
it the least. Frequent journeyings, perils from coun- 
trymen, perils from the heathen, perils in the city, 
perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among 
false brethren, all seemed to intensify rather than de- 
crease it. Weariness, painf ulness, watchings, fastings, 
hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, all tended to 
augment and concentrate it, until it became the object 
of his life, the controling principle of his whole being, 
and made him finally, what Paul was indeed, the 
prince of the apostles, leader and model to Christian 
believers of all subsequent generations. 

I have referred to these illustrations — examples of 
what persistent determination will do in art, philan- 
thropy, literature, oratory and religion — to confirm my 
position, that nothing within the limits of human at- 
tainment is impossible, if the mind is made up, the 
will fixed, the energies aroused, the whole man deter- 



ADDKESSES. 51 

mined and resolved. Let these facts be an encourage- 
ment to us all as architects of our own fortunes, as 
fashioners of our own Christian characters, and as 
teachers, by our healthful example and judicious pre- 
cepts, not only of ourselves, but of those by whom we 
are surrounded. 

It is a difficult task to acquire an independence, to 
fulfill the ordinary responsibilities of life, to obtain an 
education, to become deservedly' eminent as a member 
of any of the learned professions, as a musician, a 
painter, a sculptor, a poet, aji orator ; but greater and 
more difficult tlian all these is it to obtain and exercise 
a complete mastery over one's self — " for greater is he 
that conquereth himself than he- that taketh a city ;" 
to become possessed of the laws of intellectual, and 
moral, and Christian development ; to become familiar 
with the progressive steps that are best suited to the 
quickening, the strengthening and the harmonious 
growth of all the powers of the soul ; in one word, 
to become an accomplished, conscientious Christian 
teacher, a faithful fashioner of true and noble character. 

The Christian teacher's mission, when viewed with 
reference to its influence on the destiny of men and of 
nations, and its effects, reaching even into eternity, 
become more noble, more grand, than imagination can 
conjecture. He who makes the canvass speak, or tlie 
marble breathe, possesses an art almost divine ; but the 
servant of Christ, whose work is to fashion and polish 
that peerless gem — the mind should be as much supe- 
rior in skill and wisdom to him whose work through 
perfect is yet perishable as the soul upon which he 
displays his art is in its duration and destiny supe- 



52 ADDRESSES. 

rior to the mouldering canvas or the crumbling 
marble. The mission of the Messiah to earth was to 
restore to a fallen race the prestine integrity — the up- 
rightness of cliaracter, of which transgression had 
bereft mankind. We then are co-workers with Him. 
It is a work worthy of celestial admiration when a 
self-sacrificing Christian, even in the humblest walks 
of life, takes up the cross of nncongenial duty and 
bears it with meekness and fidelity. Henceforth let 
more exalted views of our work spring up in each 
breast and lire every mind with a loftier, nobler pur- 
pose and our state will becjome more kingly and more 
queenly than courts and crow^ns can make it, and our 
natures more inspired than they could be by the 
grandest conceptions or loftiest flights of genius, then 
our welcome hereafter will be more grand and impos- 
ing than any which give to earthly monarchs a momen- 
tary exultation, when our Loid comes from on high 
surrounded with ten thousand times ten thousand 
radient sj)irits to extend to tlie Christian teacher the 
welcome saying, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- 
dation of the world." 

As Paul, and all others who have sought to become 
assimilated to goodness and greatness of character, 
while they contended day by day with the native 
promptings of the head and heart in the effort to exe- 
cute faithfully the dictates of a firmly-fixed purpose, 
exerted a potent influence for good over those around 
them, and which influence is still increasing in its salu- 
tary effects over the minds and hearts of mankind ; so 
we, by the same enobling endeavor, appeal directly to 



ADDRESSES, 53 

the magnaiiiiiiity of our race and impress indelibly on 
those around us the lessons we are enforcing on our 
own characters and habits of life. To thus conquer 
one's Helf requires energies of mind and of character 
equal to any other emergency of life, ^elf conquered, 
and purpose sovereign over the man, the obstacles that 
lie in the way of success and especially in the Chris 
tian's walk in life dwindle into nothingness, and, we 
repeat, it becomes literally true of that man, he may do 
or become what he wills, within the bounds of human 
attainment. 

An Address delivered at the Anniversary of Kings- 
viLLE Academy, July 1, 1853. 



The scenes now passing from our view, the minds 
with which we hold communion, will be associated in 
memory with the spirit of learning, which permeates 
the very air we breathe. The animation that plays upon 
every countenance, the pleasure that beams in every 
youthful eye, and the marked success in intellectual 
cultivation which has this day wreathed laurels for 
many among you evince discrete and industrious men- 
tal tillage. The fair iields of science which you but a 
short time ago entered with such determined zeal, as 
now to return with so many tokens of success, still in- 
vite you onward and exhort you to not be content with 
your present attainments. * * * * As I look 
upon the generous provision here made for the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge, my mind reverts to some temples 



54 ADDRESSES. 

dedicated to learning in which the ornamental, the 
graceful, and the showy accomplishments of life are 
carefully inculcated, to the neglect of a systematic and 
rigid culture of the mind, that is to prepare us for the 
broad sphere of future usefulness and greatness. Their 
buildings rich in architecture and beauty, their exten- 
sive laboratories and costly apparatuses, their spacious 
and finished grounds, all combine to charm the eye 
and please the taste ; while their pleasant groves, ren- 
dered vocal by the merry shout and rollicking laugh, 
are inviting spots for pastime and recreation ; but, alas ! 
when they form the prevailing features of an institu- 
tion of learning the day of retrospection which speedily 
arrives finds them entirely insufficient to compensate 
one for the precious hours beguiled amid their en- 
chantments. Like the mountain lake that receives the 
sparkling waters which bubble up from its fountain 
bed, that drinks in the clear light of day, and mirrors 
back the image of the silvery moon and stars that 
nightly gem the ethereal vault of Heaven, but sends no 
purling streams adown the rugged slopes, to slake the 
burning thirst of the parched valleys below ; these in- 
stitutions are the motley emblems of that most obstin- 
ate of all the dwarfing tendencies of our nature — that 
which would lavish on one's self all those supplies of 
commanding good, while it imparts no permanent ad- 
vantage to any within the narrow circle of its influence. 
I am proud to say I see hundreds of other institutions 
possessing the same beauty and grandeur, in whicli 
the intellectual and the moral faculties of the pupils 
are most thoroughlj^ practically, and scientifically 
trained. There tlie young are armed with intelligence 



ADDRESSES. 55 

— with a powerful mind, and shielded by morality — 
by the fundamental principles of Christianity ; and 
who are better prepared than they for entering the 
broad arena of life and to grapple with success its 
stern realities \ Like the same mountain lake, havina- 
a thousand outlets conducting its limpid, refreshing 
waters to the parched valley below, causing them to 
burst forth with new fragrance, perpetual life, and 
unfading beauty ; tliese institutions are preparing man 
for the great and responsible duties of life and pluming 
his thoughts for eternity. '-■ * '■■ * •• * 
Education and the Educator are the topics that I 
desire briefly to present for your consideration. Edu- 
caticm in its complete sense refers to all the influences 
that tend to form the character of man — to the entire 
process of physical, intellectual and moral training, 
from the first appearance of mind until it quits its 
clayey tenement and is transported to its eternal home. 
According to this view of the subject education lies at 
the foundation of all individual and national pros- 
perity, happiness, honor, and greatness. Consequent- 
ly, the best means and methods of educating the rising- 
generation is among the first subjects that should 
engage our attention ; and most assuredly none more 
worthy, more laudable, can ever promj^t us to action. 
In speaking of mind, I shall disregard the various 
theories of materialist and the immaterialist and con- 
sider the mind a principle — a sometliing domiciled in 
the body, the existence of which is manifested by its 
varied and powerful efi'ects. A piece of steel in its 
natural state exerts no perceptible infiuence on the 
other metals, but when magnatized it attracts iron 



56 ADDRESSES. 

filings to itself, while it repels brass. Notwitlistand- 
ing the magnetism has made no perceptible change in 
the appearance of the steel, yet from the effects which 
it exerts on other bodies we unhesitatingly assert that 
it possesses a property distinct from the metal itself. 
We look out at a distance upon the forest and see the 
sturdy oak tottering and falling to the ground, we cast 
our eyes out on the broad blue expanse of the ocean, 
whose surface a few hours ago was undisturbed by a 
ripple, and see angry billows roll mountain high, 
spreading terror from shore to shore, and are con 
vinced of the existence of the viewless wind. If we 
look upon the human form we are attracted by the ex- 
hibition of animation, life and vigor ; we also perceive 
that it plans and executes with precision. These and 
other similar evidences are sufficient to justify the 
assertion, that the material body is animated by an 
agent distinct from the body itself, which forms our 
very being and measures our standing in the order of 
God' s creations. A few daj^s more, and we look upon 
the same form, but alas ! liow changed. The eye no 
longer sparkles with intelligence ; the pulse has ceased 
to beat ; all is mute ; thought and reason dwell there 
no longer. Tliat invisible agent which we denominate 
mind has departed. Observations of this kind assure 
us of the existence and a few of the characteristics of 
mind, and teach us that the body is only its temporary 
abode, and that between them there exists a remark- 
able sympathy. We, as yet, are unable to discover 
the precise manner in which these parts are so sympa- 
thetically connected, nor is the most learned physiolo- 
gist able to point out the silvery chord that binds 



ADDKESSES. 57 

the physical and intellectual together ; nor yet is the 
most piQ found metaphysician competent to inform us 
precisely wliere the soul has its seat in the body. It 
is not important, however, that we should be in pos- 
session of this knowledge. It is eijough for us to 
know that their connection is such, that whatever 
debilitates the plwsical system, or impairs its healthy 
action, detracts in the same ratio from the close and 
accurate discrimination of the intellectual and the 
moral faculties. 

Physical education then demands the same atten- 
tion as intellectual and moral education. To expect a 
profound and powerful intellect without a correspond- 
ing physical development would be contrary to the 
laws that govern the dependence of these parts upon 
each other, and therefore idle and vain. In opposition 
to this law. how frequently do we find the youthful 
student of a delicate physical constitution possessing 
a mind, which if aided by a healthy physical organiza- 
tion would be capable of the loftiest achievements, 
urged rapidly forward in the more abstruse studies, 
and who occasionally of necessit}^ fails in the accom- 
plishment of his task, and listens with an aching heart 
to the stern reproofs of his instructor, while he is fast 
sinking into a premature grave. The youth is not 
deserving of blame, he has done all in his power to 
accomplish the task assigned him. But his instructor 
is at fault. He has assumed the position of a teacher 
before he had made the necessary preparation for dis- 
charging the difficult and responsible duties belonging 
to the profession. The youth should have been edu- 
cated physically ; then, instead of being consigned to a 



58 ADDRESSES. 

premature grave, he might have graced the halls of 
learning and have been an honor to himself and a 
blessing to his country. 

Like a ship that is supplied witli an engme that is 
too heavy and powerful for tlie size and strengtli of the 
ship, the vigorous working of which must soon inev- 
itably plunge the whole together into the bowels of 
the mighty deep, is the youth, that is possessed of a 
mind that is too active and powerful for his physical 
energies. It is the frame- work of the ship that re- 
quires care and strengthening, while the engine is. per- 
mitted to work with more modei-ation — so with the 
youth, his physical functions require strengthf^ning 
and developing by systematic and regular exercise, 
while his intellectual faculties should not have been 
brought into such vigorous activity. 

In speaking of the cultivation of mind I shall not 
detain you by discussing the various theories which from 
time to time have appeared, some of which assure us 
that the whole mind is employed in every mental act, 
while others as zealously maintain that the mind is 
composed of a variety of faculties distinct in their 
nature, having specific duties to perform, similar to the 
physical organs, as the lungs, the ej^e, the ear, etc., 
each of which is designed for a specific purpose, but 
shall disregard those theories, which, whether true or 
false, are of but slight importance, and simply inquire 
what are the methods of the operations of the mind, 
and how we can assist it in performing these opera- 
tions more perfectly. The laws governing the develop- 
ment of mind are as immutably fixed as those that 
govern the physical world. A majority of the j^hysical 



ADDRESSES. 59 

laws are understood, as tlie effect immediately follows 
tlieir violation ; hence they are quickly learned. Not- 
withstanding the effect of the violation of a meta- 
physical law is not immediately perceived, still its 
effects upon the proper development of the various 
faculties of the mind are blighting and withering in the 
extreme, flence, the study of intellectual philosophy 
becomes of vast importance to every one and particu- 
larly so to the teacher, who, as it were, holds in his 
hands the future destiny of his pupils. 

Mucli has been said and is said of the original dif- 
ference in the power and of the capacity of different 
minds, of natural talent, etc., which prevents thou- 
sands from putting forth the effort they otherwise 
would do in tlie acquisition of knowledge, fearing 
that despite all their exertions they would still remain 
in a low state of mediocrity, believing that nature had 
not endowed them with superior natural talents ; hence, 
they were not destined to become learned, and tlie}^ 
might therefore as well devote tlieir time and attention 
to other pursuits. It is well to bear in mind that there 
is as much uniformity in the number and kinds of 
operation that each individual mind is capable of per- 
forming as in the number of physical organs belonging 
to the human body and tlie variety of their functions. 
Notwithstanding all minds are composed of precisely 
the same number of faculfies, capable of the same in- 
tellectual operations, still that is no argument to 
prove that all men should be precisely alike in mental 
strength and activity. We must take into account the 
fact, that each individual mind is influenced by its as- 
sociation witli other minds, by the surrounding scenery 



60 ADDRESSES. 

of other circumstances. Hence, if all minds were origi- 
nally alike they would begin to be dissimilar on their 
first developments. We find the same diveristy in the 
original strength and capacity of different minds, as in 
the different degrees of original strength and activity 
of the physical energies. The same diversity is ])er- 
ceptible through the works of nature. There is but 
slight difference in the size, color and shape of the 
apple blossoms, still one apple is fuU}^ developed — as 
large and smooth, while another is small and knotty. 
Children of the same parents, surrounded b}^ the same 
scenery, having the same teachers and influenced in 
most respects by the same circumstances, differ as 
widely in intellect as individuals residing in different 
parts of the world. But who will pretend to deny that 
the greater part of this difference may not be owing to 
the same cause, when we reflect upon the fact, that the 
same circumstance at different times produces as dis- 
similar impressions on the same individual, as differ- 
ent circumstances at different times ; consequent!}^ the 
same circumstance, at the same time, may produce 
very different impressions on different individuals, 
owing to the state of mind in which they chanced 
to be. "As the twig is bent the tree's inclined." 

The mind requires for its development constant, 
systematic and appropriate exercise. That teacher 
who is enabled to excite ttie minds of his pupils to 
constant and vigorous activity, succeeds most perfectly 
in developing their various faculties. 

When I speak of the activity of mind, I mean a 
philosophically Inteltedual and moral a(;tivity — an 
activity that has a tendency to give its possessor 



ADDRESSES. 61 

correct, critical and comprehensive views of the arts 
and sciences — of man and his Maker. A mind left to 
itself is active, but its activity is continually enfeebling 
its powers, and disqualifying the individual for pro- 
ficienc}" in intellectual and moral attainments. 

The reason why some appear so destitute of compre- 
hension, is because they have never been accustomed 
to comprehend much ; reason is blind and the powers 
of imagination are inactive, because they have never 
been sufficiently and systematically exercised. The 
education of such individuals, if education it may be 
called, consists in the cultivation of a local memory, 
while the systematic strengthening and developing of 
all the faculties of the mind have been neglected 
because the teacher himself had never studied the 
laws that govern the development of mind — had not 
been educated for the difficult and all important 
duties devolving upon the practical teacher. 

The studies assigned for pupils should be adapted 
to their intellectual capacities, and each topic in these 
studies, as well as in those that follow, should increase 
in intricacy as the powers of the mind are expanded 
by the comprehension of subjects alread}-^ passed over. 
When the studies are thus properly selected, thor- 
oughly taught and attractively illustrated, which the 

gcomplished teacher alone can do, there is awakened 
in the mind of the pupil an undying interest in study, 
which will continue to be of infinitf^ importance to him 
in all coming time. . A student thus deeply interested 
in the pursuit of knowledge, travels the path of science 
with increased delight. The comprehension of every 
new mathematical theornm unfolds additional beauties; 



ADDRESSES. 



the investigation of each law of nature but opens wider 
the gates of her inexhaustible storehouse ; the con- 
teihplation of the starry heaven to his philosophic 
mind is rich with unfading beauties, in which he reads 
the wisdom, the goodness, the greatness, and the 
power of Him who created and governs this mighty 
universe. 

From the smallest living fibre to the sturdy oak ; 
from the smallest perceptible animalcula to man — the 
noblest work of God ; from the smallest particle of 
dust to this stupendous universe, he discovers one 
unbroken chain of beauty and design, one boundless 
whole in which the wisdom and the goodness of its 
Maker beam forth from every object, pointing his 
mind aloft and forbidding him to fix his thoughts and 
affections too tenaciously on sublunary endearments 
which vanish at the touch like glittering dew-drops at 
the approach of the sun. 

The mind of man when properly educated becomes 
a most powerful agent. It grapples with giant strength 
the intricacies of science and unfolds the mysterious 
laws of creation. It roves away among the planets, 
and as they whirl in the immensity of space, it cal- 
culates their magnitudes, their distances and their 
velocities. It is the agent b}' which nations, king- 
doms and empires rise and flourish, or before which 
they tremble and fall. Yet with all this boasted infinite 
power, how slight a caus(^ will impede its growth, 
how slight an influence will turn it. from the paths of 
honor and virtue, and cause it to tread those leading 
to misery, degradation, wretchedness and ruin. 

From what has been said of the mind and its improve- 



ADDRESSES. 63 

ment, it will readily be perceived that the teachers' 
profession is among the most difficult and responsible 
of all professions ; hence the greater importance of 
establishing institutions for the education of teachers 
— the education of that class of men upon whose 
instruction depends the intellectual and moral devel- 
opment of the rising generation ; consequently, the 
future prosperity and honor, or the future degradation 
and shame of this free and happy people. We are 
what we are through the instrumentality of the wis- 
dom and virtue of our own citizens aided by the bless- 
ings of Divine Providence, and by j)ersevering exertion 
in securing the harmonious development of the intel- 
lectual and the moral faculties of the youth of our 
land we may be what we will. Our nation is rapidl}^ 
increasing in wealth, power and greatness, and never 
was there a greater demand for men of profound wis- 
dom^ — never was there a greater demand for all classes 
of society, from the lowest to the highest, to become 
thoroughly, practically and profoundly educated. 
Shall we not, then, recommend that a million of 
dollars, or so, more be added to the Literary Fund, 
to be distributed thoughout the counties and towns 
of our State '( Suppose we should obtain the increased 
appropriation, should we then find the thoroughness, 
the practicability and the character of common schools 
increased proportionally ? 

It is reasonable that a class of teachers, the majority 
of whom have never studied the powers of the mind 
and the best means of developing its various faculties, 
they who have never had an opportunity of being 
familiar with the art and the science of Dractical teach- 



64 ADDRESSES. 

ing should teach more successfully, more thoroughly 
and scientiiically, merely because they have paid a few 
dollars per month or per year more ? As well might 
we expect a statute of Washington, as well conceived 
and intimately executed as that of General Jackson, 
by the renowned Mills, from an indifferent artist, if 
we only pay him tens of thousands of dollars. Money 
alone cannot make the canvas breathe, and marble 
speak ; nor can it make the powers of the human mind 
expand in symmetrical proportions so that its pos- 
sessors shall stand forth an honor and a blessing alike 
to his country, to his friends and to his family 'i No ; 
but it is the profound knowledge of nature and science, 
of tools and materials, which the artist has by long 
years of patience, persevering, unct^asing and self- 
sacrificing exertion obtained. • 

All acknowledge, that to become an eminent painter, 
a sculptor, a lawyer, a doctor, a divine, etc., etc., that, 
in addition to a well cultivated and evenly balanced 
intellect, it is indispensably necessary that the indi- 
vidual should pass through years of severe study 
devoted expressly to his profession ; who then will 
pretend to deny that the teacher — he who fashions 
and polishes the human mind — he who, as it were, 
gives character to the rising generation and plumes 
immortal minds for eternity, does not require a pre- 
paratory course of training as expressly adapted to 
qualify him for his arduous and resjDonsible duties as 
he who stains the decau'ing canvas, or he who cjiisels 
the crumbling marble. 

Then, in addition to our law, our medical, and our 
theological institutions, give us normal schools--schools 



ADDRESSES. 65 

ill which the theory and the practice, the art branches 
of a sj^stematic course of English education, and the 
science of teaching shall be methodically and thor- 
oughly taught in counection therewith. * * ■^- * 

It is one thing to comprehend and another to com 
municate, or in otlier words, it is one thing to thor- 
oughly understand a subject, and quite a different one 
to possess the ability to communicate it intelligibly to 
others. Therefore, our academies and colleges, under 
existing arrangements, are no better calculated to 
supply our State with proper teachers than they are 
to furnish us with artists, lawyers and divines. A 
man who stands pre-eminent as a lawyer or a minister 
must possess a natural talent for his profession, and, 
in addition to a liberal education, he must have been 
educated expressly for his particular vocation. 

So with the successful teacher, he must possess a 
natural talent to communicate and to govern and be 
thoroughly educated for his profession. That such an 
education can not perfectly ho obtained in normal 
schools does not admit of a doubt. 

Should one or two such institutions be established 
in this State, and be abl}^ conducted for a number of 
years, you ma}' rest assured that no petition, praying 
for the diminution of the funds devoted to educational 
purposes, would be presented to the Legislature signed 
by its thousands with a ^ mark.'' No, No; each ag- 
grieved citizen would write his own name and would 
be prepared to lay l)ef()re the world a good reason for 
so doing. 

In conclusion, permit me to express my deep regret 
in not being abU^ to devote to the consideration of this 

9 



66 ADDRESSES. 

subject the time that it demands. I can assure you that 
I feel too deeply interested in the cause of education 
to speak upon it, before such an intelligent audience as 
this, without being able first ta make a careful prepar- 
ation, and I should not have done so had not events 
beyond my control occupied my time since I antici- 
pated being present at this meeting, until I left my 
home to enjoy the pleasure of meeting the teachers of 
this State, with whom I have for so short a time had 
the honor of being numbered. 




Extracts from Addresses delivered on various 

occasions. 



Too often the key to knowledge is exhibited instead 
of knowledge itself. * * * Memory ap- 

pears to be the faculty which is most called into use — 
a local memory, the very one requiring least attention. 
A philosophical memory should be cultivated. This is 
done by forming a habit of associating, according to the 
relation of cause and effect, of antecedent and conse- 
quent. It consists in teaching the elementary principles 
from which an answer can be inferred from a given 
question. Rather than to commit to memory a written 
answer it trains the child to notice the effect of a certain 
cause, or the cause of a certain effect. It is developed 
by exercising and improving the reason and judgment 
rather than by localizing facts. Reasoning consists in 
comparing two oj- more events with each other and from 
thence drawing a conclusion. The way to improve the 



68 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 

reasoning powers is to use them. Rules and examples 
should not be given without the reasons on which these 
rules are founded. • Hence, when any one has a ques- 
tion to solve in business or otherwise he must recur to 
the rule instead of forming one for himself from the 
principle involved. 

If a scholar gives a wrong answer it is of no use to 
tell him the true answer and pass along, but other 
questions should be proposed (not questions to draw 
out the answer) by replying to which the pupil dis- 
covers his own error, and corrects himself. This, if 
judiciously managed, cannot fail to benefit the mind 
and inspire the scholar with new zeal, as it shows him 
that he has some power of his own, and this knowledge 
brings delight. A pupil sometimes gives a wrong 
answer to a question because he attaches a wrong mean- 
ing to a word, sometimes because he does not fully 
understand the design of the author, and not unfre- 
quently because he reasons erroneously. It is quite 
as difficult to discover all the bye-paths in which 
pupils go astray in the investigation of science as it is 
to know the right way, and not less important. If a 
pupil draws a wrong conclusion he should know how 
he came to so vague a result ; first, convince of error ; 
secondly, show where he reasoned wrong ; thirdly, 
teach him to reason aright ; and by such a course 
a philosophical memory will be cultivated, truth 
elicited, and its influence engaged. Our Objects 
should be to impart in the minds of our pupils a 
spirit of inquiry ; a desire to know the iGliys and 
loJierefores / the ability to trace effects to their causes 
and to understand the, relation of cause and effect in 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSJIS. 69 

general. In other words, it is oni- duty so to train the 
child as to enable him to take his place in the broad 
sphere of republicanism, an intelligent, honest, free, 
indej)endent, methodical thinker and doer. Perhaps 
it would not be out of place to glance at the cultiva- 
tion of the imagination. 

Many seem to regard it as a dangerous facult}^ which 
ought to be stifled and destroyed rather than regulated 
and improved. Hence, they load its wrongs with lead 
rather than ti'im them for loftier flight. These views 
arise from a mistaken view of the faculty — the great 
mainspring of human exertion and a grand source of 
human improvement, and not a mere builder of airy 
castles for fancy rovings. As it delights in presenting 
to our minds scenes and characters more perfect than 
ourselves it prevents us from ever becoming satisfied 
with present attainments, and prompts the strivings for 
higher good. 

Many are noted for originality of thought and sub- 
limity of expression which is owing mainly to the 
proper training of the imagination. It also enables the 
philosopher to frame hypothesis upon which he ar- 
ranges truth, and from thence deduces laws that 
govern the world. * * ^ That the culti- 

vated intellect is not of itself unfavorable to unswerv- 
ing morality, is true ; but this fact only increases the 
responsibility of the teacher ; for, it is perhaps 
unnecessary to say that the nuptials of two principles 
must be affected in early life so that in holy wedlock 
they may grow up each of the other " bone of its bone 
and flesh of its flesh," or otherwise, allowing the 
alliance to be but partial, until the enterprises of life 



70 P]XTRACTS J^KOI^f ADDRESSES. 

amid the turmoil of action shall have absorbed the 
mind's attention, they will doubtless become forever 
alien to each other. Prudence, therefore, dictates that 
the teacher should consider well this department of 
his responsible duties ; and tlien, the work of training 
and moulding ended, and the pupil dismissed from 
his guardianship, under the due inspiration of the 
principles we have named, we may thenceforth con- 
template him as pursuing his way through the trying 
vicissitudes of life, or winging his course through the 
realms of lofty thought, ever surrounded by the fair 
forms of '■'•Justice^ Mercy and Truth.^'' 

The first and most important qualification that a 
teacher should possess, to be capable of governing- 
others, is to be able to govern himself. Never ask of 
a pupil what yoii do not know to be right. Then 
endeavor to show him that your requisition is not 
only just, but for his benefit ; and you will gener- 
ally secure prompt and cheerful obedience. Use kind 
words and gentle means first ; but, under all circum- 
stances, not only insist upon, but secure prompt 
obedience on the part of every one, young and old, 
under your charge. * * ^ v^ Teach one 
principle at a time, and th(^ applications of that prin- 
ciple ; afterwards a new principle, and then combine 
the two and let the pupil unravel them, and then 
another, and so on. It is the same as unloading a 
load of grain ; first take one sheaf and then another, 
and so on until the workis accomplished. It is so in 
reasoning, one principle stands out distinct and clear 
and muse be disposed off, and then another, and so on. 
The first lesson is as difficult for the pupil as an}^ in 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 71 

the book, and if it be solved correctly and tli(> pupil 
understands the reason — the why and wherefore— more 
difficult ones will not be so difficult. The great secret 
of teaching does not consist in the number of pages 
passed over, but in understanding the solution of the 
question, the principles involved in it and their appli- 
cation. * '^' * It is as important to teach 
the pupil to rivet his memory on a subject as it is to 
teach anything else, and the man is educated Avho can 
control his mind and bring it to bear, with all its 
powers, on one thing at a time. '' * '• * 

Most truly did McLean, the Vice-President of Prince- 
ton College, remark " many go to college for a sheep- 
skhi, and come away with "a sheep' s head.'" * * * 
I am aware that on this topic mucli honest difference 
of opinion exists ; still I believe a careful, candid ex- 
amination of the subject would, in a measure, har- 
monize the divergent view^s of prominent educationists 
and direct their efforts of usefulness into the broad 
channel. 

" The law that moulds a tear, 
And bids it trickle from its source; 
That very law preserves this earth a sphere 
And guides the planets in their course." 

What gravity is to the solar system, female influence 
is to human society, regulating, governing and sus- 
taining. The society of intelligent and virtuous women 
will dispel base and groveling thoughts as does the 
approaching sun the blighting frosts of Autumn. Let 
us then deceive ourselves no longer by considering the 
co-education of the sexes as productive of naught but 
evil ; but rather let us consider that they were created 



72 EXTRACTS FRO% 



ADDRESSES, 



to enjoy each others society and to improve and 
strengthen each other in every good and great work, 
when placed together nnder healthful and efficient 
.regulations. 

The mind of man and woman is composed of pre- 
cisely the same number and kind of faculties ; in the 
one, as a general thing, the coarser and sterner ; and 
in the other, the more refined and milder faculties or 
principles of our nature predominate. Thus the sexes 
are designed by an all- wise Creator to exert a mutually 
elevating and refining influence upon each other. That 
course of training which is best calculated to develop 
the mind, and to elevate the thoughts of the one, and 
in every other way to prepare him to become an honor- 
able and useful member of society and to enjoy eternal 
happiness hereafter, will have a corresponding effect 
upon the other in preparing her to fill the liigh and 
holy position designed by God. 

As the sturdy oak and the modest violet both fiourisli 
and arrive at matuiity under the vivifying and strengtli 
ening influence of the same successions of sunshine and 
showers, so will the minds of both males and females 
be most systematically and harmoniously developed 
and strengthened for iisefulness here, and happiness 
hereafter, in tlie same classes and under precisely the 
same course of study. Nor will such a joint education 
of the sexes have any more of a tendtmcy to cause 
women to aspire to the position of men, or men to 
assume the duties of women, than the same succession 
of sunshine and showers will give to tlie violet the 
outspreading branches and rigidity of the oak, or th*^ 
oak tliH beautiful tints and more delicate texture of the 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 73 

violet. Let then our sons and daugliters grow up 
together — pursue the same course of study — in the 
same school ; and the universally acknowledged bless- 
ings that we as a nation enjoy, that arise from the 
intelligence, virtue and piety of the women of America, 
will continue to shed tijeir benign influence over our 
land, carrying joy and gladness to thousands of homes, 
now the abodes of misery and wretchedness. 

* ^- * -A- * * * 



Extract from an Address delivered August 11th, 1858, 
at scranton, pennsylvania. 



Fellow Teachers of the Pemisylimnia State Teachers' 
Association., and Friends of Education. 
The recurrence of our anniversary gathering, while 
it marks the period of a haj^py reunion of the friends 
of education, suggests grave reflections on the flight of 
time. Steadily and ceaselessly the Hoary Reaper moves 
on his tireless way towards the unmeasurable future, 
regardless alike of the lethargy that broods like night 
over unthinking mortals, and the dread necessities that 
bid them awake to life and activity— alike deaf to the 
pleadings of the yearning soul, whose keen prophetic 
glances proclaim a single life too short to permit the 
gathering of half that truth which strews the walks of 
life, and to the shrieking mortal, who, his sands near 
run, craves but the lease of one short year, that the 
neglected work of life may not be left entirely undone. 

10 



74 EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 

Time moves on, and in its coui-se bears all humanity 
on to tlieir destined end. '* '"■ * The mind 
in the process of development realizes at least three 
distinct mental conditions, viz., the preceptiTe, the 
conceptlve^ and the reasoning^ and any method which 
fails to keep the operations of the school within the 
limits proposed, by these natural progressive condi- 
tions, involves a positive absurdity ; for the latter con- 
dition, though generally removed from the former by 
the interval of years between infancy and early youth 
only, is nevertheless subject to all the circumstances 
attending the moral and intellectual peculiarities of 
ancestry, as well as those of birth or condition in life 
and rank in society, by the effects of wliich that 
remove is extremely limited in one case, and largely 
extended in another. The proper character of teach- 
ing, under one of these conditions, is as ill adapted to 
the necessities of the pupil under another, as strong- 
meat is to the condition of infancy, or diluted milk to 
the formation of bone and muscle for the arm of the 
laboring man. * * * When truth, of what- 
ever character, or rather pertaining to whatever sub- 
ject, comes to be regarded as a sacred idea, and the 
pupil, even in the ascertainment of scientific truth, is 
made to feel that he is brought in contact with sacred 
elements — then, whatever of progress he ma}'^ make in 
the acquisition of knowledge, each addition to his fund 
of intelligence will also prove a step upward in the 
scale of moral existence. '^' '* * Facts are 
but half appreciated — knowledge is but half conceived 
— and truth itself is but partial and incomplete, unless 
they enforce upon the consciousness of the learner the 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 75 

relation they sustain to the moral condition and pros- 
pects of mankind. '■' ''^' * In closing this 
discussion we deem it proper to refer to that brancli of 
common school, as well as normal school instruction, 
to which all other branches are subordinate, viz., the 
cultivation of the heart, or the inculcation of sound 

2?ri?ici'ples — ivncom'pTomising morals. 

* -X- -s -5* -y? * * 

Could we but imbue the acquisition of true know- 
ledge with the sentiment, no less true than mathe- 
matical axioms, that in j^roportion as truth gains 
ascendency over error — and the mind yields to its 
conclusions, in so much only do we make advance- 
ment — insincerity would lose its hold upon mankind, 
and the fraud and unkindness that mar the peace 
and beset the enterprises of life would be abhorred, 
and mankind would stiive after universal exaltation. 

In the homage paid to truth, God would receive the 
adoration due his character and attributes, and man- 
kind exchange the kindly ministry of good-will to 
men ; and thus the law of love would be fulUlled. 
■'■• * * * In conclusion, accept my humble 
acknowledgments, my sincere thanks, for the kind, 
the gentlemanly, and the ladylike treatment it has 
been your pleasure on all occasions to extend to me. 
Let us now at our separation remember that, 

" It is not all of life to live, 
Nor all of death to die." 

and endeavor so to spend the remainder of our days, 
that when we ai-e called to bid adieu to earthly scenes 
and associations we shall be prepared to meet in that 



76 EXTRACTS FRO*k ADDRESSES. 

upper and better world wliere anxieties, troubles and 
disappointments are unknown, but where happiness 
and joy eternally reign. 



(From a Visitor's Report of the Susquehanna Normal School.) 

I have as often as my duties would permit visited 
the normal school at its opening exercise, and also 
during the regular recitations, and have ever been 
pleased and instructed. 

There are, I am informed, upwards of two hundred 
and sixty students in attendance, the majority of whom 
are preparing for the business of teaching. The morn- 
ing exercises, which comprehend some entirely new 
features, are of much interest to visitors, and cannot 
fail to be of lasting benefit to the students, as their 
thoughts are continually engaged in committing to 
memory words arranged by some skillful mastei- of the 
language, which embody gems of thought, or are in 
search of some useful truths, while at the same time 
each student is encouraged to arise in public and ex- 
press his views with conciseness and clearness. 

At fifteen minutes past eight o' clock in the morning 
the school is assembled in the hall for the exercises 
referred to, which occur in the following order, the 
school being divided into five divisions : 

First, each lady of one of the Divisions arises and 
repeats a passage from the Bible, which she has pre- 
viously selected and committed to memory. Second, 
singing. Third, reading a chapter from the Bible by 
the Principal, and prayer. Fourth, each gentleman 
of another division arises in his place and repeats a 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDllKSSES. 77 

sentiment from poetry or prose, selected or original, 
which he has committed for the occasion. Fifth, 
declamation by three or four students. Sixth, object 
lessons. In this exercise a subject is assigned for the 
students' consideration the morning preceding that on 
which they are asked to arise at their seats and give, in 
a condensed form, their knowledge of the subject or 
q[uestion under consideration. In these object-lessons 
a vaiiety of subjects seem to occupy their attention, 
e. g., the history of the manufactory of china, porcelain, 
and pottery, and wherein they differ one from the 
other ; the history of different fruits and spices, and 
the manner of their (Hiltivation, etc. ; discovery 
and history of artificial light, biographical sketches, 
etc., etc. 

It is now nine o'clock, and the classes are sent to 
their various recitation rooms where they meet their 
teacher and recite their lessons. 

In all the exercises especial attention is paid not 
only to the correct use of language and accuracy in 
the annunciation of all the elementary sounds of each 
word used, but terseness and perspicuity of style and 
ease of manner receive the attention which their im- 
portance demands. 

The instruction in every department seems to be of 
the most thorough, practical character. Students here 
are not encouraged to shirk out of preparing their 
lessons by informing their teacher that " they under- 
stand them, but are unable to explain them to others," 
and thus maintain a standing in their classes creditable 
or discreditable to themselves in proportion as their 
opinions of their own abilities are favorable or unfavor- 



78 EXTRACTS FROlfe ADDRESSES. 

able. Every student is required each day to explain 
clearly a portion of his lessons, or to expose his want 
of knowledge of the subjects treated of in it. 

Another feature of the school which attracts the 
attention of the visitor is the good order that prevails 
throughout. Never have we met so large a number 
of young men and women at school who deported 
themselves with more ladylike and gentlemanly pro- 
priety. This fact indicates that they attend school for 
a noble purpose, and is a guarantee that as they go 
forth to teach in the various districts of the county they 
will exert a healthful, refining influence over the minds 
of the children committed to their care, and direct 
their energies in those paths of knowledge that will 
yield them success and pleasure commensurate with 
their efforts. 

The students of the normal school enjoy rare advan- 
tages for the cultivation of their minds, for the acqui- 
sition of those manly habits and virtues that ever 
attend the eminently useful, the truly great and good. 
Hence, the more we have a right to expect from them 
as they go out to teach our district schools — to form 

the habits and character of the youth of our county. 
******* 

The examination of the different classes in the after- 
noon gave us a very fair opportunit}^ of understanding 
Professor Stoddard' s superior system of teaching, and 
we saw enough to warrant us in saying that under that 
system the pupil can acquire more thorough and prac- 
tical knowledge of the branches taught, in a given 
time, than is possible under the old system. The grad- 
uates of this institute cannot depend on a routine 



EXTRACTS FROM ADDRESSES. 79 

acquirement of words, phrase and rules, but they are 
obliged to become complete masters of the nature and 
philosophy of each brancli of science to which they 
turn their attention. Their education is therefore not 
made up so much of a knowledge of rules as of prin- 
ciples and their application. 

The advantages of this system were strikingly ap- 
parent in the examinations we witnessed. The class 
in grammar was called and the questions proposf-^d 
before the students knew who would be called upon to 
answer them and illustrate the principles involved. 
In intellectual arithmetic Professor Stoddard stated 
the most difficult questions and then called upon 
students by name to solve them, who commenced by 
repeating the questions exactly as stated. In this way 
the attention of the entire class is fixed upon the sub- 
ject before them, and each one must be prepared to 
answer it, for no one knows at the time who will be 
called upon to do so. This part of the examination 
was a complete triumph. Questions were accurately 
solved, mentally, which would puzzle some teachers to 
do in double the time on the slate or blackboard. 
This is an excellent discipline of the mind, and when 
generally introduced into our schools a great step in 
advance will be gained in popular education. The 
examination of the class in geometry was equally satis- 
factory, each member being able to name the book and 
number of any proposition, and to demonstrate any 
proposition, designated by the book and number, on 
the blackboard. 

The exercises were enlivened by vocal and instru- 
mental music. 



80 EXTRACTS FK(^M ADDRESSES. 

(A Day at the Liberty Institute.) 

To-day we had tlie pleasure of visiting the above- 
named seminary. * * * * ^he school 
is taught at present by Mr. J. F. Stoddard, a graduate 
of the normal school ; as a teacher he is thorough in 
his instructions, and seems to exhibit unusual tact and 
ability in the discharge of his duties. Every scholar 
seems to know his place, and the burden of govern- 
ment seems to be entirely taken from the shoulders of 
their instructor. * * * * \Ye noticed a 
desire for learning, and to excel in every study seemed 
to characterize all the scholars. That this institute is 
second to none in the county (so far at least as our 
observation has extended) we believe to be true, and 
that it will eventually stand among the first in the 
country we think more than probable. 

LiBEJtTT, February 28, 1848. 





^^^^^s 




(By Request.) 



A Few Clippings from Reports of Institutes, giving a 
Glimpse of the Man at Work. 



Professor Stoddard, by his clear and convincing lec- 
tures, his accurate, yet inimitable desscription of what 
common schools too frequently are, instead of what 
they should be ; his thorough knowledge of the duties 
of an educator, his high sense of the responsible task 
of giving energy, strength and expansion to the young 
mind, and calling into exercise all its reasoning facul- 
ties — not only convinced the teachers, but aJl who 
heard him, that there was much yet to learn by all 
those wlio assumed the responsible position of edu- 
cators in our common scliools. And indeed we heard 
some who ai'e considered among our best teachers in 
tlie county remark, tliat although they had hereto- 
fore a rather good opinion of their skill and proficiency 

11 



82 CLIPpft^GS. 

in "teaching the young idea how to shoot/'' yet they 
are now satisfied they know but little abont the pro- 
fession. * * * * ^" He explained, and 
eloquently enforced upon the minds of those present, 
an interesting and successful method of teaching the 
alphabet and the art of reading ; his instructions in 
the best methods of teaching arithmetic, if adopted, 
are well calculated to inspire the mind of the pupil 
with a deep interest in his studies, and with a zeal 
to press forward and grasp more difficult propositions, 
which is seldom found in our schools. By his system 
he calls into exercise all the powers of the mind of his 
pupil, and leads him forward by a process of reason- 
ing and a regular system of analysis in the solution of 
problems, which will soon enable him to concentrate 
all the powers of his mind on a single subject. He 
would thus accomplish more than one thing at a time ; 
the process will strengthen the intellect, aid the mem- 
ory and train the mind to a regular system of logical 
reasoning. In arithmetic there are but few principles 
involved, and these in themselves are simple, and 
hence the grand object in teaching is to teach prin- 
ciples ; to teach the pupil to reason correctly, and if 
this is done results will take care of themselves, and 
the answer will be accurate. 

If his method of teaching this science was adopted 
it would make the study a pleasing and delightful 
task to the pupil instead of that gloomy and unintel- 
ligible mass of figures, which, under the too common 
way of teaching, repels the student and causes him to 
shrink from even a vigorous effort to master and un- 
derstand the elementary rules of the science. His 



CLiPPiN<;s. 83 

instructions in the art of teaching geography and some 
of tlie liiglier branches of the sciences were very inter- 
esting, but we have not time or space to advert particu- 
larly to them at the present time. 

By exposing the errors too commonly practised in 
our schools with beginners — showing the imj^ortance 
of starting right — drawing the contrast and showing 
tlie results between the right and wrong way — and 
proving tlie necessity of teachers understanding the 
duties of their profession, he must have convinced all 
who heard him, that the art of teaching is as much a 
tiling to be studied as an}^ branch of science. * * * 
Action is the watchward which the future demands. 
* "^' '■'' One of the primary objects of a normal 
school is to preserve that beautiful harmony between 
the inward and the outward, which the Great Author 
intended should exist ; to crush error and elevate 
truth, and so far as ma}' be render human beings 
mentally and physically perfect. * * -x * 

Professor Stoddard seems to have been the main 
man on this occasion, and conducted the next exer- 
cises on ''Elementary Sounds,'' holding the teachers 
to a thorough drill on the separate vocal sounds, and 
also combining with them the sub-vocal and aspirate 
sounds of the language, exercising also on the dis- 
tinct utterance of words and sentences of difficult pro- 
nunciation, insisting, as usual, upon thorough work — 
perfection gained only by long practice. Exercises 
in mental arithmetic b}' Professor Stoddard com- 
menced with very simple questions, — perfect exact- 
ness of solution being required. They included some 
very difficult questions, which appeared to be more 



84 CLIPPINGS. 

than a task for the best, though some made the attempt 
— questions requiring an abstract algebraic process of 
reasoning. * * * Professor Stoddard then 
addressed the audience. His subject was "Every 
man's destiny formed by his own perseverance and 
determination." He referred to numerous examples 
to show what indomitable perseverance will accom- 
plish. * * * In a lecture by Professor 
Stoddard on the mind, he regarded the superiority 
which one mind possesses over another, not so mucli 
attributable to superior natural abilities, as to the direc- 
tion given it in youth. That much depended on early 
impressions, and argued from this the importance of 
having well qualified instructors. * * * ^• 
He dwelt elaborately and eloquently upon the system 
of public instruction, and the principles on which it 
is based, demonstrating its intimate connection with 
the welfare of our country and the best interests of 
humanity. * * * Professor Stoddard said, 
in teaching mental arithmetic he would require the 
pupil to stand up and go through the solution aloud, 
and be careful to have them tell the whole process — 
having no running across the corners — allow them to 
have no books in the class, and read the question to 
them but once. This course will tend to strengthen 
their memories and produce a habit of close, regular 
and systematic thinking and reasoning, which will be 
invaluable to the pupil. * * * Professor 
Stoddard said the difficalties encountered in the exer- 
cises in algebra may be more easily overcome by hrst 
mastering, familiarly, the simple elements. Some of 
the citizens took an active part in this exercise. 



CLIPPINGS, 85 

Again, he gave an exercise in practical arithmetic. 
Thorough work was here also the key to success. 
Operation of substraction explained, without the bor- 
rowing and caj-rying process, application of square 
root, etc., etc., together with alligation, in the Pro- 
fessor's peculiar method of solution, wei-e the main 
features of this exercise. 

Professor Stoddard now took up the subject of 
reading. He said one great difficulty in this science 
consisted in passing over the vowel sounds in too much 
of a hurry. The voice should be much exercised on 
these sounds, and he would impress the mind with the 
fact, that to say there is a long sound, a broad sound 
and so on, amounts to nothing. These sounds must be 
taught and understood, and this can only be done by 
the teacher giving them. He also showed that the 
body should be in a correct position, in order that the 
vocal chords may be in their natural position. * * '^ 
In the Professor's lecture on grammar he urged the 
importance of thoroughness, and of not being satisfied 
when the student has learned the form, but the pupil 
should be taught to give a reason for every step they 
take in the analysis of a sentence. * * -^ * 
The Professor also made some remarks upon the man- 
ner in which geography should be taught. He would 
never spoil an elevating and comprehensive idea by 
whittling it down to the capacity of a child, but would 
endeavor to expand the pupil's mind till it was ready 
to receive it in all its beaut}^ and nobleness. Tell a 
child how the earth keeps its place — how a person can 
stand upon its surface — illustrate with a magnet and 
needle ; illustrate the form of the earth and situation 



86 CLIPPINGS. 

of countries upon an apple or some familiar object ; 
give all definitions a comprehensive explanation, but 
never degrade the idea you intend to convey. He re- 
garded drawing upon the blackboard as a pre-requi- 
site to a successful perusal of this study. He would 
also give the pupil an idea of distance and velocity, in 
order that the pupil may be able to undei'stand this 
subject properly. By request, he made some remarks 
on school government. He regarded promptness and 
harmony of action as necessary to the maintenance of 
good order. * * * President Stoddard 

delivered a lecture on electricity. Having an excellent 
electrical apparatus, he made several experiments, 
exhibiting some of the strange powers of that subtle 
fluid. * '" ^' During the Professor's lecture 
upon pneumatics he stated that the weight or pressure 
of the atmosphere is equal to the pressure of a column 
of water thirty -three feet in height ; that the noise 
made by the discharge of a gun is caused by the 
collapse of the departed air — all of whicli was demon- 
strated by experiments made with a pneumatic appa- 
ratus latel}' purchased for the University of Northern 
Pennsylvania. Other experiments were made to show 
the elasticity and compressibility of air. * * * 
During the remaining part of the week the Professor 
lectured upon English giammar, natural philosophy, 
mathematics, school arrangements, the school laws, 
etc. These lectures were well calculated to induce on 
the part of teachers a habit of close observation, 
correct methods of reasoning and scientific investiga 
tion, and a more just appreciation of the science and 
art of teaxjhing. * * '■' '^' * 



CLIPPINGS. 87 

John F. Stoddard, President of the University of 
Northern Pennsylvania, made a few observations upon 
the utility of Teachers' Associations. He thought 
teachers had too long stood apart from each other, 
when by a more close and fiiendly intercourse they 
might have instructed, encouraged and sustained each 
other. He recommended a thorough knowledge of 
the elementary principles of every science, observing 
that they are few and simple, that tliere are only forty 
round and consonant sounds in the English language, 
and that difficult and puzzling as trigonometry is 
found to be, that it has but five or six different prin- 
ciples. 

The President, resuming his remarks, said, there are 
but few who are intimately acquainted with arithmetic. 
Their imperfect knowledge is easily traced to the im- 
perfect mode of teaching. The learners were hurried 
through books without acquiring a knowledge of prin- 
ciples. And as soon as drawn from the beaten track 
they were lost, the simplest problem being sufficient to 
puzzle them. The mind not thoroughly disciplined 
serves only the purpose of a storehouse, and is unable 
to trace effects to their causes, or to assign the effect of 
causes. Arithmetical problems should not be solved 
by the machinery of I'ules, but by the employment of 
plain reasoning common sense. Scholars erroneously 
suppose that there is some great mystery in and about 
the rules of arithmetic. Now that which is enveloped 
in mystery cannot be fully understood. They should 
never neglect the exercise of that reason which origi- 
nates and tests the philosophy of rules. In resuming 
his instructions on teaching practical arithmetic he ex- 



88 CLIPPINGS. 

plained the system of teaching by "object lessons." 
On this subject his remarks and illustrations were 
indeed exceedingly interesting and instructive. He 
showed how the pupil, whilst he is learning to read, 
may be taught many of the important sciences ; how 
his mind may be expanded and developed, and his 
thirst for knowledge be excited and increased. He 
also lectured on the subject of school government, and 
in this interesting address he said : first, govern your- 
self ; be kind, gentlemanly^ and courteous, be thorough 
and earnestly interested in the welfare of your pupils, 
show them that you have regard for their feelings — 
place confidence in them— give them to understand 
that they have a character to sustain — govern them by 
the power of kindness. Corporal punishment should 
not be resorted to until demanded by peculiar circum- 
stances and the strictest necessity. ^ * ^- * 

He concluded his arduous, constant labors, of over 
three days, and instructive lectures before the Institute, 
with a brief, appropriate, and an affecting farewell 
address. 

The following resolution was then offered and unani- 
mously adopted. 

Resolved^ That we regard Professor Stoddard's Normal system of 
instruction as superior to any with which we are acquainted, and 
also that we believe Mr. Stoddard would do much to advance the 
science and art of teaching by publishing a work in which his views 
shall be more fully set forth. 

* ■•<- -i^ ■«• ^ * * 

"As nature opens to us her treasures we perceive the 
sublime harmony that prevails throughout our vast 
domains. Science, the talismanic sceptre, at whose 
wave as if by magic springs forms of wondrous beauty 



L«IG. 



CLIPPIiXGS. 89 

to our mental view, and the thousand, hitherto undis- 

tinguishable voices of nature become as familiar to 

our ears as household words— in the song of the birds 

— the music of the rills and the kindling glories of 

approaching dawn — in the mellow light in which the 

sleeping earth lies bathed — all these are ours to guide 

the thoughts upward from earth to that supernatural 

realm where unincumbered thought may stretch its 

pinions and soar forever amid the starry wonders of 

the heavenly world." 

******* 

At the eighth annual session of the Wayne county 
Teachers' Institute, held November 24, 1873, the follow- 
ing resolutions were adopted : 

Resolved, That in the death of Professor J. F. Stoddard, the Pioneer 
Institute Worker, and first Superintendent of Wayne County, we, as 
well as the educational world, have met with almost an irreparable 
loss. 

Besohed, That his valuable instructions and mathematical works 
have done more for the interest of our county in elevating the grade 
of the teachers and Public Schools, than the works of any other 
Mathematician or instructor with which we are familiar. 

Resolved, That we cherish his name with grateful remembrances, 
and strive to perfect ourselves in the studies to which he gave the 
last years of his life. 



12 



}. .. 



^|pi!l 






The note of triumph sound! 

A victory is won ; 
The goal encircle round ! 
An earthly race is run ; 
The conflict past, and toilsome way ; 
The laurels wreathe his lu-ow to-day. 

The noble presence mourn ; 

In paths now lone and drear; 
Rejoice that, upward borne. 
He left the sighing here. 
As echoes of celestial praise, 
Float nearer since he joined the lays. 



Shall sorrow crush the heart. 

As if bereft of hope ? 
Or faith its aid impart, 

With problems deep to cope? 
Could message come from pearly gate 
To say. Be not disconsolate, — 



92 VICTOHPr. 



The sainted ones enfold. 

Our home in mansions fair, 
And glories, all untold. 

We yearn with you to share. 
Would we neglect, in selfish grief. 
The trust bequeathed, the mission brief? 



A lesson and a task 

Is chosen, and is given ; 
Its purpose do not ask, 

It will be plain in Heaven. 
To culture, mould, and educate 
For duties, joys — that yonder wait. 



An alphabet is taught. 

Its characters are new, 
They sometimes tax the thought, 
But will the mind imbue 
With knowledge of the language sweet, 
That thrills the air when angels meet. 



The varied exercise 

Develops voice and ear; 
The music of the skies 

Is caught in fragments her( 
The elementary sounds we learn. 
The song: to sinff on safe return. 



VICTORY. 93 



We roam no trackless waste 

On l^leak and starless night ; 
O'er numbered steps we haste 
To native realms of light. 
The (xod unseen forever nigh, 
As felt when, Father guide, we cry. 



One pace behind is Death, 

Surrounding, — everywhere, 
Tlie Life, which gave us breath. 
Preserves witli ceaseless care. 
The ebb and flow of vital tides. 
Is swift or slow, as He decides. 



The power of Faith to test, 

Our graces to employ. 
Prepare for work and rest, ■ 
The things of sense annoy. 
The discipline to nerve, expand 
For destiny — supremely grand. 



A cross for each is made. 

By Wisdom and by Love ; 
Its form has been inlaid 
Upon our crown above. 
The weight, the pattern is decreed, 
To meet the special, daily need. 



94 VICTIORY. 



And when the training o'er. 

The errand all complete, 
The child at school no more, 
The Sire, unvailed, shall meet, 
The life perfected will explain, 
The mysteries of toil and pain. 



The labyrinth we thread. 

The shadowed wave we press ; 
And then our feet shall tread 
The land of blessedness. 
We there, as seen and known, shall know 
If walking with the Lord beloAv. 



On rod and staif lean hard ; 
The liand extended grasp; 
Tjet nothing thee retard ; 
Be patient — speed thy task. 
Then greet the loved ones gone before, 
And dwell with them forevermore. 




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NOV g 1900 



